Stonehenge Secret
by Medie Shanachie
Summary: Lorne rescues a linguist and then takes his team on a search for an Ancient weapon.
1. Chapter 1

Major Evan Lorne frowned as he turned the corner on one of the lower levels of the city. He thought he could hear what sounded suspiciously like singing. He was pretty sure that everyone had cleared out of here hours ago when the last of the engineers had come up. The group had been discussing something, he wasn't sure what exactly, but whatever they had been sent down here to fix hadn't gone well. The looks on their faces had ranged from disgust to depression and no one had been techo-babbling at an insane rate. Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd had sent Lorne down to make sure everything was locked down and secured for the night.

Lorne tapped his ear piece and asked, "Control? This is Lorne."

A voice answered quickly, "Yes, Major Lorne?"

He didn't recognize the voice immediately, but then remembered that Chuck was on duty now. "Are there any life signs down here other than me?"

There was a pause, then Chuck answered, "Yes, sir. Three rooms ahead. Just one though."

"I'm going to go check it out. Lorne out."

Relieved that he wasn't hearing things, but confused that someone was still down here, Lorne crept down the hall. He paused outside the door, checking the surroundings. Supposedly Atlantis was safe, but Lorne had read the mission reports, and experienced his own incidents so safe was a matter of degrees. Two life signs meant him and one other person, but he had no idea who the other person was. He poked his head into the room when he saw the hallway was clear and frowned again. There was no one visible, but the volume of the singing had increased. He still couldn't make out the words, but now he thought it was because the singer wasn't using English.

This room, unlike the majority on this level, did have consoles in it. Four of them to be exact. Lorne wasn't sure what they were for, but assumed they were what the engineers had been working on. Tools were still scattered around the room and he was careful not to kick or trip on anything as he crossed the room. It wasn't until he had rounded one of the consoles and looked down, that he discovered the source of the life sign.

Two legs, clad in the standard jumpsuit of the Atlantis expedition, stuck out from under the console. That was pretty much all Lorne could see. Everything from the person's (at least he assumed it was a person) thighs up was underneath the console. Lorne couldn't see any evidence that the person under the console was armed so he cleared his throat, hoping not to startle him or her and asked, "Are you okay?"

A muffled thunk came from under the console, followed by the cessation of the singing and then a string of what Lorne could only assume were curses. Although once again none of the words were in English, the inflection was unmistakable when you spent most of your day surrounded by Marines. Now that the voice was speaking and not singing he could tell it came from a female. He grinned when she continued cursing for a good five minutes before she began to repeat herself. When she finally stopped, he crouched down next to her and asked, "Can I do anything to help you?"

"Well you could have told me you were there rather than scaring the hell out of me," the voice answered.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to startle you. Are you under there for a reason?"

"Because for some reason the Ancients put the directions to the console underneath it. And no one else who could read it was small enough to fit underneath." Her legs wiggled for a minute and then she sighed. "And apparently I'm not small enough to get out on my own."

"Do you want me to pull you out?"

"Yes," she said, then when Lorne's hands started to close around her ankles, she apparently changed her mind, "No. Wait." He jerked his hands back, wondering if she was caught on something. "Who are you?"

Lorne sighed. "Can't that wait til I get you out from under the console?"

"Just answer the question. Oh and find me a screwdriver. A flat head if you know what that is." A hand popped out from under the console or at least the tips of her fingers.

Lorne's eyes swept the floor around him and he spotted a screwdriver a few feet away. "Yes, I know what a flat head screwdriver is. Major Evan Lorne." He picked it up and placed it in her hands.

"What?" Her hand closed around the screwdriver and it disappeared under the console.

"My name is Major Evan Lorne."

"Oh. Okay. Air Force or Marine?"

"Air Force," he answered as the screwdriver rolled out from underneath the console.

"Can you find a smaller one? That one's too big."

"How much smaller?" Lorne asked, as he hunted around.

"Not much. Maybe one size down. I don't know, just smaller."

Lorne stifled a laugh at the frustration in her voice. "What's your name?"

"Aiden Bancroft," she answered as he dropped another screwdriver into her extended fingers.

Lorne rifled through his memory of the engineers, but couldn't match her name to any of them. "Did you just come in on the _Daedalus_? Not Doctor or anything?"

"Well yeah doctor, but doesn't that sound pretentious? And no. I've been here a while. Just haven't been off Atlantis yet. Maybe when they stop finding things on Atlantis that have to be translated _right now_ I'll get to go." A triumphant sound and plinking followed her last statement. "Ha! Gotcha, ya bloody bastard!"

Lorne played her last few statements back in his head. "You're not an engineer?"

"Huh? No, I'm a linguist." The screwdriver rolled out from under the console, then she shoved a piece of metal out. "Grab that, would ya? The piece of metal. And stick it up on top of the console. Just keep track of where you put it."

Lorne scooped up the metal, then kicked the screwdriver out of his way. "How did you end up stuck under there anyway? Why didn't the engineers help you up before they left?"

The voice that answered him now sounded sheepish. "I sort of annoyed them."

He laughed. Having listened frequently when the engineers argued over some gadget or gizmo, it was amusing that someone else annoyed them. "How did you manage that?"

"I was singing." Her voice sounded defensive now.

"I heard you when I came in. Actually I followed your voice in. You sing rather well."

She sighed. "It wasn't the singing they objected to exactly. It was the choice of songs."

"What were you singing?"

"_An Poc Ar Bulle_. Its Irish." Her legs wiggled again and a few more inches disappeared underneath the console. "I need that screwdriver back. I found one more panel I need." She stuck her hand back out and when he dropped the screwdriver into it, she continued, "Thank you. I think they would have been fine with me singing if I had been quieter or if I had been singing in English."

"How long have you been under there?"

"All told? About four hours. The last two I've just been hoping someone would notice I was missing and come looking for me. I translated most of the panel while I was under here, but I still need to write it all down." Another metal piece slid out from under the console. "Okay. Put that one with the other one and then I'm ready for you to pull me out."

Lorne stood up and placed the second plate onto the console. "Why didn't you call for help?"

"I couldn't."

He crouched back down and reached for her ankles again, taking a firm grip on them. "Why couldn't you? You have a radio, don't you? Everyone has a radio."

"Major," she paused, "Grip a little higher, please. I don't want you to pull my legs out of joint."

Lorne considered these directions and wondered where exactly she wanted him to place his hands. So far all he had seen of her were her legs, and while they were very nice legs, he didn't want to be up on conduct unbecoming charges when they got back to the main levels.

She sighed when he didn't move his hands. "I promise no one but us will know about this, Major, but I'd really like to get out from under this console. And to answer your question, there's barely enough room for me under this console, my radio and everything else didn't fit. Put your hands above my knees and tug. I don't think I'm stuck on anything, just wedged in. I'll yell if something hurts."

Lorne moved his hands up as directed and took a firm grip. "I'll pull slowly. Tell me if it hurts."

"I'm not a masochist. Believe me, I'll yell loudly."

Lorne had just started to tug on her legs when his radio beeped. He reached up with one hand and keyed the button, saying, "Lorne."

"Lorne, where are you?"

Lorne winced when he realized the voice on the other end was Lieutenant Colonel John Shepard. "Still in the lower levels, sir. I discovered the source of the life sign and was just assisting Doctor Bancroft."

"So I'm guessing the life sign was Doctor Bancroft?"

"Ah, yes, sir. She was just finishing up a translation for the engineers."

"Well, drag her out of whatever she's got her head stuck in and escort her back up to the engineers. I need you to take your team out to M3X-721 or whatever it is in four hours."

Lorne nodded, even though he knew Sheppard couldn't see him. "Yes, sir." When the radio clicked off again, Lorne shifted his grip on Doctor Bancroft's knees and began to slowly pull her out. "Is this hurting at all?" he asked after a few moments with no comment from her.

"Nope. I'm fine. Keep going."

She wiggled a little, causing Lorne's hands to slip. "Don't help, Doctor. I don't want to hurt you."

"Oops. Sorry." Lorne didn't think she sounded the least bit contrite, but at least she stopped wiggling. "Call me Aiden. Or Addy. You say doctor too many times and I'm going to start looking for my brothers."

"Brothers?" Lorne questioned. He figured if she kept talking, she wouldn't be paying attention to what he was doing and maybe he could pull her out faster and hustle her back up to the main level.

"I've got five of them. All older. Three are doctors, although only Daren is a medical doctor. One's a Marine and one's in the Air Force. None are on Atlantis though."

Lorne breathed a sigh of relief at that news as he finally pulled her out from under the console. She emitted a small squeak as she emerged from underneath, but Lorne wasn't sure why she was squeaking since she didn't seem to be injured in anyway. He wasn't surprised that the woman he had pulled out was petite, but he was surprised at how young she looked. She appeared to be barely out of her teens. Long dark brown hair was bound back in some sort of braid and big sapphire blue eyes stared up at him from out of a pale, pale face. Despite her words about not having been off Atlantis since she got here, Lorne suspected it was her natural skin tone that gave her the paleness, not a lack of sun. The top half of her jumpsuit had been unzipped and pulled down, Lorne assumed to give her room under the console, leaving her top half clad only in a t-shirt that was stuck to her with sweat and something that Lorne fervently hoped was grease. He quickly averted his eyes when he realized he was staring down at her. "Are you all right?" he asked when she just lay on the floor. She seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of joy in breathing deeply.

"Just enjoying being able to take a full breath. I said I fit under the console. I didn't say I fit under there comfortably." After a moment, she sat up, causing Lorne to scoot backwards. "I need to get the translation finished and transcribed and get it up to the engineers and then there's got to be some more pieces to it because what I've got so far doesn't look complete..." her voice trailed off as she hauled herself to her feet and picked up both pieces of metal that Lorne had moved for her. She looked at them, then turned the one in her left hand over, and began to walk off. Lorne watched in amazement as she crossed to a table that had been set up. She didn't watch where she was going, her eyes had been glued to the metal the entire time, but she didn't trip or stumble over anything.

"Doctor," he started and when she didn't even turn, he tried again, "Aiden, Colonel Sheppard wants you back up top. I need to take my team to M3X-721."

She waved him off, not even looking up from the keyboard where she was frantically typing. "So go. I know my way back to the main levels. I'll be up as soon as I finish with this."

Lorne looked at her, considering. He could just pick her up and carry her upstairs, but that would cause all sorts of problems he'd rather avoid. The first problem being he suspected that, like Doctor Jackson, she tended to talk a lot. He had the feeling she'd get rather strident if he was to manhandle her. Not to mention it went against his upbringing to treat a lady that way. Of course the whole conversation he'd had with her so far tended to support that opinion. She did seem to be typing rather quickly though and Lorne suspected that if he left her alone, she would be finished rather quickly. She had already moved the first piece of metal to the side and was rotating the second. He wasn't sure if she was trying to figure out which side was up or where the sentence started, but she made a triumphant sound and set it down after a moment. Another second and the click-clack of keys filled the room again. "It doesn't work that way, ma'am. You should know that."

"I can't leave this in the middle. My memory is good, but not that good." Lorne got the feeling that she wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, but at least she was answering him.

"How much longer will it take you to finish up?"

She shrugged in reply, although her fingers didn't stop moving on the keys. "I don't know. Not long. I've only got about ten lines left."

Lorne peered over her shoulder, yes what she was translating was in what he had come to recognize as Ancient, even if he couldn't read it, and she was reading it as if it was English. He did notice she was typing English, but she didn't seem to be pausing between reading and typing in the translation. "You have fifteen minutes. Then done or not, we head back topside." Lorne set the alarm on his watch and wandered off to finish exploring the room.

There wasn't much else to see in the room; the consoles he had noticed when he entered, the table Dr. Bancroft was using, and the equipment the engineers had left. It was easy to distinguish between what the Ancients had left and the Atlantis team members had brought down. Lorne frowned as he realized nothing had turned on or flickered since he had entered the room. He didn't have the rapport with Atlantis that Sheppard did, but he did have the gene and things tended to turn on when he was in the vicinity. He spun around to ask Dr. Bancroft about it just as the lights went out.

He swung his P-90 back up, clicking on the flashlight that was attached as Dr. Bancroft swore. He grinned, she did have an interesting vocabulary, although now that he had heard about her brothers he suspected that had something to do with it. "You okay?" he called, focusing the light in her direction.

"Fine," she answered back. "What happened?"

In the small pool of light he could see she was standing perfectly still, her fingers poised above the keyboard. She had obviously frozen when the lights went out, afraid to move when she had only the light from the laptop screen to see with. "Sorry," Lorne answered, as he picked his way over to her. "I think I did that inadvertently."

Dr. Bancroft frowned at him. "Can you give me a little light? I just need to pass code this file. How do you inadvertently turn off a light?"


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's Note: Oops I forgot to do a disclaimer on Chapter One so umm Sheppard, Elizabeth, Chuck, and Lorne don't belong to me, nor does Atlantis. On the other hand, Aiden and the reprobates (aka Lorne's team) that are going to give everyone ulcers do belong to me. No spoilers in this chapter or the last one, but if you're looking for a timeline--second season (d'oh) after "Coup D'etat" and there are spoilers for that episode forthcoming. Also this is definitely before "Sunday", although Carson doesn't appear as of yet (yet another person who doesn't belong to me!) Thanks to everyone who put alerts on my story, glad to know someone's reading, some reviews would be lovely, but you can wait until I'm finished I guess. Hopefully I'll have the rest of this done soon. There is a lot more than I've posted here, but I will most likely be taking it down at the end of the week if I finish it and then re-posting. Please PM me if you would like a message when that happens. Oh and in case you were wondering, its been a while since I saw Season One or the beginning of Season Two (although I just watched the latter recently) and I completely forgot that Ford's first name was Aiden so that was completely an accident.  
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Lorne shifted the light so she could see what she was doing and tried to answer her question. "Well, you know how the Ancient gene works?"

"Know, yes, sorta. Or at least the general idea. I'm not a medical doctor, but I've read reports. I understand that it lets the people who have it work things on Atlantis. I don't have it, although Carson keeps trying to talk me into letting him inject me." She shuddered. "No thanks. I see enough needles with the tests I have to take when I do get out of Atlantis."

"So, anyway," Lorne said, smiling a little at her obvious dislike of needles, "I was wondering while I was waiting why nothing had turned on since I came in. Apparently Atlantis translated that to I wanted the lights off."

"I can answer why nothing came on. Colonel Sheppard came down with us first thing this morning and turned everything off except the lights. Why don't you think the lights back on?" She powered down the laptop as she finished talking and closed it.

Lorne frowned. "I tried. Nothing happened. There must be a short in the system somewhere."

She looked around, although Lorne wasn't sure what she could see in the dark. "Did you see my jacket?"

"No, ma'am, but we need to get back topside," Lorne answered as his watch alarm went off.

She sighed and gathered up her laptop, the two metal sheets, and a few other odds and ends on the table, stuffing them in a bag she had also located. Lorne waited impatiently while she slipped her ear piece into her ear. Finally she looked up at him. "I suppose I can't procrastinate any longer."

"Um, no, ma'am," he replied, unsure of what she actually wanted from him.

She clicked on the flashlight she had scooped up and pointed it towards the door. "Lead on then, McDuff. Escort me back to the engi-nerds."

Lorne stifled a laugh at her words, deciding it wouldn't do him any good to encourage her. With both their lights now illuminating the dark, they were able to easily pick their way across the room. Lorne was impressed that she hadn't picked up more than she could carry one-handed and that most of it had been stuffed into her laptop bag. She hadn't begged him to carry anything, nor had she complained about having to leave things behind. Of course she was probably intending to return at some point to retrieve what she had left.

They were almost to the stairs when Dr. Bancroft looked up and spoke aloud, "Atlantis, I know I don't have the gene and that Major Lorne isn't Colonel Sheppard, but we could get back to the main level a whole lot faster if we had some lights."

Lorne looked at her as nothing happened. "Were you expecting that to work?"

She shrugged and used her light to illuminate the first step. "I figured it was worth a try. You never know what she's going to decide to do."

Lorne shifted his light to shine ahead of them while she kept hers on their feet. "Do you believe Atlantis can think and reason?" he asked as they began to climb.

Despite her shorter legs, Dr. Bancroft easily kept up with Lorne as he climbed the stairs. "I've seen a lot of strange things over the years, Major," she replied, "and that was _before_ I moved to the Pegasus Galaxy. I've found its better to err on the side of caution." She paused, considering what she had just said and seen. "Oh, and if it shoots at you, its generally a good idea to shoot back and/or drop everything and run."

Lorne chuckled. "Could you pass that information on to some of the other scientists?"

"I think I actually learned that lesson from my brothers," she replied.

Lorne look at her askance. "Your brothers used to shoot at you?"

"Ah, not exactly. Not with actual guns anyway. But, well, you know youngest sibling; only girl. The boys tended to torment me." As they continued their climb, she entertained him with stories of her brothers. Aiden had a way of telling a story that even when she was the instigator, he found himself laughing. He could tell from listening to her that even though many of the stories were about them tormenting her, there was a bond of affection there. She obviously loved and missed them and he wondered what had prompted her to take the job offer to the Pegasus Galaxy.

Before he knew it, he was escorting her into the science labs. "Here you are, Aiden," he said, managing not to stumble over her name, although he still wasn't sure he should be calling her by her first name even with permission. "Safely at the science labs."

She groaned as they came to the doors and turned to him. "Are you sure there isn't anything else I might need to take care of? Do you need me to help you explain to Colonel Sheppard what happened with the lights? I mean I don't understand why they didn't turn back on, but I can at least back you up on what happened."

Lorne smiled as the confident woman he had been escorting seemed to disappear at the sight of the scientists. "I'm sure. If Colonel Sheppard needs to speak to you, he'll contact you."

She sighed, then inhaled and exhaled slowly. Lorne could almost see her steeling herself to face the men and women on the other side of the glass doors. So far no one had turned in their direction, but he knew from experience that it wouldn't last much longer. As single-minded as the scientists could be when they were working, they did tend to notice interlopers in their lab space. Somehow he thought they would see Aiden as non-authorized personal, even if she was delivering information they needed. "Right. He would do that. He certainly isn't shy about calling me when he needs something translated. I suppose I can't put this off any longer."

Lorne smiled, hoping it would give her some more confidence. "No, ma'am. Hopefully you can just drop off the file and leave though."

She grinned at him and it had a decidedly evil glint to it. "Oh, I can't do that. See it was very mean of them to leave me stuck under that console. And all of my files get pass coded. With my own personal system. Which is not in English." With those parting words, she pushed the door to the lab open and strode inside, her head held high and made a beeline for one of the newer scientists that had just come in with the _Daedalus_.

Lorne watched for a minute to be sure she wasn't going to turn back around and run out, but she seemed to be holding her own with the scientist she was talking to. He clipped his P-90 to his tac-vest and made his way over to the transporter, selecting the section for Little Tripoli so he could go collect the Marine contingent of his team.

He wasn't surprised to find Wall and Murry in the firing range; the two of them side by side as Murry coached Wall through firing down the line. Neither of them were armed with nine millimeters, but instead with something that Lorne suspected one of the other teams had brought back from a mission. It appeared to be a cross between the nine millimeters pretty much everyone carried and the zats that were common in the SGC. Unlike the zats, these did appear to shoot projectiles although at too fast a rate for Lorne to actually see what type they were. He waited til they both emptied what passed for a clip on the weapons, then called, "Gear up, boys. We leave on a mission in three hours."

Wall spun around and pulled his ear protection off. "Mission? I thought we didn't have anything til tomorrow."

"The Colonel wants us to go to M3X-721. We leave in three hours," Lorne replied, before turning and leaving the firing range to go locate McFadden, the last of the three Marines on his team. He knew the faster he left the range, the less chance the two Marines would have to question him about a mission he knew next to nothing about. He had been racking his brain since Sheppard told him they were going, but couldn't recall anything about the planet other than another team had gone there about six months prior and that they had discovered some old ruins. That didn't give him any clues as to why Sheppard was so gun-ho for him to suddenly return to the place.

Lorne finally found McFadden in his own office with the last member of the team, Deke Zulu. Lorne winced as he realized the two men had his laptop open and Deke was typing. "You do realize there are classified and personal files on there?" Lorne asked as he paused in the doorway.

Deke didn't look up from what he was doing. "Your point? I'm just streamlining, not reading." His voice held a trace of a British accent, something Lorne knew from experience would get thicker as he got more involved in his work. His coal black skin contrasted with the walls and the Atlantis uniform. When he smiled, which he was doing gleefully right now, his teeth showed up bright write against his skin. Lorne knew he was lucky that the lanky man respected him as much as he did. He had seen first-hand the havoc the man could wreck when someone annoyed him; locked files would be the least of Lorne's concerns. Deke was a hacker of the highest caliber, able to pretty much get any computer to do anything he wanted. Lorne had heard he had been one of the men assigned to interface the Earth computers with the Atlantean ones. He was also a field medic although he hadn't ever admitted where he go his training and Lorne had never wanted to ask. When he had asked Deke to join the team, he had simply asked if he had hacked those records. Deke's brown eyes had gone from pleasant to hard and cold before he had answered, "No." Lorne hadn't wanted to question him again after that incident.

He sighed now at the man's lack of concern. "Close it up for now. We're headed out in a little over three hours so we need to gear up and head up to Control."

McFadden frowned and Lorne could almost visibly see him trying to recall their mission schedule. The man had a great memory for the superstitions he loved to study, but he relied on his palm pilot type pad for everything else. If he wasn't so completely organized as to be considered anal, Lorne would have wondered how he had made gunnery sergeant.

The silence while McFadden thought had apparently dragged on too long for Deke because he slapped the older man on the back and told him, "You didn't forget a mission, Mate. We didn't have one scheduled until tomorrow."

Lorne shook his head. McFadden was good at his job, he had to admit that, but sometimes he wondered how he had gotten all the scatterbrained Marines. "I already sent Wall and Murray to the locker room. You two need to get kitted out."

Lorne steeled himself as Deke rose to his feet. He didn't have a problem with his height, didn't feel the need to throw his weight or rank around, and let his command presence speak for itself, but Deke was still enough to give even the most confident man a complex. The computer man easily topped 6'8" and due to the nature of their job was in good shape. Lorne had long ago resigned himself to being the shortest man in the room, but Deke still gave him a jolt sometimes.

By the time the three men arrived at the locker room, Wall and Murray had completely geared up and Wall was checking Murray over. Lorne didn't say a word as he went to his own locker to exchange his on-base gear for his field gear. The very first time they had gone into the field together as a team, he had ordered Wall not to do a pre-mission check on Murray. He assumed that a demolitions sergeant was capable of not blowing himself up on accident. They hadn't gotten more than ten steps away from the gate on the other side when a grenade had fallen out of Murray's vest, rolled slightly, and exploded. The five men had barely scrambled out of the way in time. They had lain there for a few minutes, breathing, thankful to be alive and in one piece, then Wall had turned to Lorne and said, "Sir, now am I allowed to double-check Murray?"

Lorne had looked at both his sergeants, his ears still ringing from the blast, and replied, "Oh, hell, yes!" Since then he hadn't said a word when Wall checked to make sure Murray wouldn't blow them all up before leaving on a mission.

It didn't take long for all five men to be ready to go. They had been on enough missions together that they had gelled as a unit and each man knew what he needed to carry to be the most helpful.

When they got up to the gate room, Lorne left his team to wait down below and made his way up Dr. Weir's office where he could see both her and Sheppard waiting. He didn't salute, knowing that Sheppard preferred he didn't, but stood a little straighter as he entered the office and took in his CO slouched in a chair in front of the desk that Dr. Weir sat behind. Whatever had caused Sheppard to want Lorne to take his team off Atlantis obviously wasn't life-threatening because Sheppard wasn't vibrating with the barely contained energy that usually signified an emergency. Lorne nodded at both of them as he came to a halt. "Sir. Ma'am," he greeted them.

Dr. Weir looked up from the laptop in front of her. "Major, have a seat."

Lorne took the other seat in front of her desk as Sheppard straightened up slightly so his longer legs didn't trip his second in command. Dr. Weir closed the laptop and look at the two men in front of her. "The Colonel informed you that you'll be taking your team to M3X-721?" she started.

"Yes, ma'am," Lorne answered, glancing sideways at Sheppard, who gave a half-shrug. Obviously he didn't know what was going on either.

"I had a chance to go over the pictures taken by the team that went out six months ago and it looks like there might be a weapon of some sort in the ruins. Unfortunately I can't be sure because who ever took the pictures didn't take all of the writing. I'm sending one of the linguists with you so we're sure to get all the information this time."

"Are you sure that's wise, Elizabeth?" Sheppard asked. "I mean sending a civilian with the team."

Dr. Weir raised her eyebrows at Sheppard. "I think the Major and his team are capable of keeping one civilian all in one piece for four days, John." When Sheppard didn't reply to her remark, she continued, "You have four days, Major. I would assume McFadden can assist the linguist with her work?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, knowing from experience it was better not to get into the middle of whatever tiff she and Sheppard were having.

"The linguist will be joining you in the gate room in a few minutes, she just needed to finish up what she was working on."

Lorne took her words as the dismissal they were and headed back down to the main floor to rejoin his team when he noticed the figure running down the other set of side stairs. He paused so he could get a better look at the figure and realized it was Aiden Bancroft. The linguist had changed her clothes and had on a pack and a sidearm and Lorne almost groaned as he realized what that meant. Aiden was the linguist Dr. Weir was sending with them.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: So umm yeah. Lorne and Sheppard and Dr. Weir (and Chuck although I don't name him) don't belong to me, if they did belong to me, we'd be watching the show a whole lot more. On the other hand, Aiden and the boys _ARE_ mine. Minorly major spoilers for "Coup D'etat" so be prepared. If you haven't seen the episode, it isn't completely given away, but yeah most of it is. Sorry this isn't my normal amusing Author's Note, but its been a long day and I just wanted to treat y'all since I had a rough day at work, a job interview (that I think went pretty well) and a migraine. grins Reviews are welcome and loved. Enjoy! PS Oh I am planning on possibly putting my notes on the boys up in my live journal...any opinions either aye or nay?_

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She was practically bouncing in place as she met him at the bottom of the stairs and an ear to ear grin stretched across her face. "I get to go with you," she informed him. 

Lorne had to smile at her excitement, not unlike a little kid on Christmas morning. "Yes, ma'am, I can see that. We're ready to go. Do you have everything you need?"

She nodded, then frowned. "No. I need to double-check one last thing with Dr. Weir."

"Five minutes then," Lorne replied. He watched as she dashed up the stairs to Weir's office, not seeming to notice the weight of the pack on her back. Once she was safely inside, he turned back to his team.

All four of his men were staring at him when he rejoined them, but none of them seemed willing to question him. "What's going on, boss?" Deke asked finally.

"We're escorting Dr. Bancroft to M3X-721," Lorne answered. "Dr. Weir wants her to take a look at the walls there." He looked at his men, holding each of their gazes for moment. "I want you to be on your best behavior while we're gone. No swearing, no crude comments, you will treat Dr. Bancroft with the respect due a superior office." He paused to make sure his words had sunk in. "Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," the four replied, the Marines in unison, Deke slightly behind the others.

McFadden nodded, drawing Lorne's attention to Aiden coming up behind him. He turned as she bounced to a stop in front of their small group and looked up and then up again at Deke. "Damn, you're a big one!" she blurted out.

The Marines grinned and then turned to look at Lorne, accusing looks on their faces. He sighed, already foreseeing a long mission. He turned to see Dr. Weir standing on the balcony above the gate room. "Major," she called down, "you have a go."

"Yes, ma'am," he called back, turning to face the gate as the lights began to cycle. As many times as he had seen this, he never found it boring. This time though, he found himself watching Aiden. Her eyes were wide with delight and she seemed to be whispering something to herself. As the gate whooshed open, Lorne nodded to his team who set up a perimeter around the young doctor.

Suddenly she looked up at him. There was a look of unadulterated panic on her face. "You know maybe you can just bring me back better pictures. I translate from pictures all the time. I mean you just need to get closer and focus better on the writing, maybe take multiple pictures of each section. Then you can come back and give me the pictures and I'll just translate from that. I mean its not a big deal. I don't really need to go to the planet and see them for myself."

Lorne motioned for his men to step away a little. "I thought you wanted to go to another planet," he said gently.

She motioned at the gate room and her arm seemed to take in the whole city. "I'm already on another planet. I certainly wasn't born here on Atlantis."

Lorne nodded, understanding how she was feeling. "I can't promise this is a cakewalk. At least with the buffers you won't be completely sick to your stomach on the other side. Also on the plus side, it only takes a few seconds, so it'll be over quickly. My advice? Take a deep breath and just step through. You survived five brothers, this has got to be easy after that."

She smiled up at him, although it was still a bit shaky. "You make it sound so simple, Major." She looked up a the wavering pool in front of them. "I've gotta stop reading mission reports," she muttered. She shifted on her feet, still staring at the wormhole, but didn't back away. "When I first got here, I was given a bunch of reports to familiarize myself with events here." She turned to look up at him. "One of the reports was your mission to M1K-177." When Lorne looked puzzled, she elaborated, "When the Genii captured you and put fake bodies out with your dog-tags on it for Sheppard and his team to find."

Lorne nodded, that mission wasn't long enough ago for the memories to have faded completely, but the pain had eased somewhat. Training, no matter how through, couldn't cover being held on another planet and used as a guinea pig. All of them had had sessions with Heightmeyer, which were required, but not at all comforting. "What happened on that mission didn't actually happen when we stepped through the gate. We came under fire after being on the planet for a little while and Dr. Lindsay was able to escape and bring us help. I won't say it was fun to be held captive, but we did survive. I've done this many times; both here and on Earth. Nothing ever happened when I was stepping through the gate," he reassured her. "Besides it's a ride you never forget." When she still didn't seem convinced, he added, "We'll be right there with you. Besides you have one advantage over all the other scientists."

"What's that?" she asked.

"You already know the number one rule of a mission," he replied. When she just looked at him in confusion, he elaborated, "If someone shoots at you, shoot back or drop everything and run."

She smiled at that, then shifted her pack and stepped forward. "Okay, boys, if you're ready so am I. Momentary panic averted."

Lorne turned for one last look up at the balcony just before he stepped through the gate, following his team and Dr. Bancroft. Sheppard had joined Dr. Weir and was standing just behind her, his hands in his pockets, watching the team depart. Lorne knew Sheppard wasn't at all sorry not to be going on this mission, but anytime someone stepped through the gate without him, Sheppard got a little antsy. Lorne hoped his team wouldn't need to call for a rescue this time.

When Lorne materialized on the other side of the wormhole, he was pleased to see his Marines had set up a perimeter and were scanning the surrounding area avidly. Deke had the life signs detector out and was studying it, double-checking their Intel while Aiden had crouched down to look at something on the platform. Lorne keyed his radio to check in before the wormhole collapsed, "Atlantis, this is Lorne. We've safely arrived."

"Good luck, Major," Dr. Weir replied. "Check in at this time tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am," Lorne replied, then watched as the wormhole shut down.

He glanced at Deke as the other man put his detector away. "We're clear, boss."

Lorne nodded. "Let's move out then."

Aiden waved at him, not looking up from what she had found. "Hang on, Major. I want to get a picture of this." She tried to reach behind her to her pack, but couldn't quite get it.

Lorne motioned for Deke to assist her, as he kept his eyes on the surrounding area. The larger man moved over and knelt down next to her. "Where's your camera, Dr. Bancroft?" he asked.

"It should be right at the top of my pack. Just hand it to me when you find it. And I'm Aiden." She was using one finger to trace whatever she had found, although she held her hand above the stone and didn't actually touch it. She held her other hand up, without looking at him, all of her attention centered on the writing. As she studied, she mumbled to herself, not loudly enough for any of the men to make out what she was saying.

Deke rifled through her pack, trying not to overbalance her as he looked for the camera. A moment later, he found a small digital Canon tucked to one side. The camera almost disappeared in his large hand, but he gently put it in the much smaller hand of the linguist. She never took her eyes off the writing as she moved the camera around, clicked it on, and began to snap pictures. Lorne was about ready to tell her to hurry up when her head snapped up, her eyes clearing as she took in her surroundings. "Oh, we made it."

All three Marines grinned at her comment as Deke rolled his eyes. He hauled himself to his feet and joined Lorne. "She's almost more oblivious than Murray," he commented to the Major.

"She was just doing her job," Lorne pointed out, not exactly sure why he was defending her. "She's not military, Deke. Its our job to keep her alive, not the other way around."

Deke looked over at the Marine they had been discussing. "Murray's just a flake, boss. Somehow I don't think the little linguist is."

"Let's move out," Lorne commanded, dropping the conversation. He watched the linguist get to her feet, carefully not stepping on what she had been studying.

Aiden stuck her camera in a pocket on her vest and hopped down the steps, falling into step with McFadden as the group set out in the direction of the ruins. Lorne knew it would take them about three hours to get to the ruins, but that it would be an easy hike. The land was flat and the temperature was comfortable with a nice breeze. Since they had four days for Aiden to study the ruins, he didn't set a bruising pace to get there.

The group easily fell into their normal pattern for movement with Wall on point, Murray behind him where everyone could keep an eye on him. Deke followed behind him with McFadden and Aiden walking together while Lorne watched their six. Aiden quickly struck up a conversation with McFadden once the group was moving. "Sergeant," she began, "I understand from Dr. Weir you've been learning Ancient."

"Gunnery Sergeant," he corrected.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Marines don't shorten ranks like the zoomies do. So you would address me as Gunnery Sergeant or just Gunny or McFadden," he explained.

"Well, that's just confusing," she replied, but waved off a better explanation when he opened his mouth. "Never mind. I grew up with brothers. I can do the manly guy thing and call you by your last name. So Ancient?"

"I can read and speak it. Dr. Jackson started to teach anyone with an aptitude for languages at the SGC when he had time and when I got to Atlantis, I continued the lessons."

She snapped her fingers. "That's right. Daniel did say something about that when I was packing my stuff. I keep telling him; write it down, make me read it, then I'll remember it. Sorry I have a lousy memory for things said to me, but I can remember everything I read. I'll just write it down when we stop later. Anyway, if your major can spare you, I'd like to draft you to help me with the translation. I've only got four days and I'm assuming the major isn't going to let me work around the clock."

"No, ma'am," McFadden replied. "I'd be happy to help you when I'm not standing watch."

"Perfect." Aiden turned around and walked backwards so she could face Lorne. "Is it okay if I borrow your gunnery sergeant?" she asked him.

Lorne nodded. "I think we can arrange that, Dr. Bancroft."

She shook her finger at him, admonishing him. "I told you already. Call me Aiden." Then she admitted a small squeak as she tripped over something and started to fall backwards. McFadden grabbed for her as Lorne lunged forward. Between the two of them, they managed to catch her before she landed on the ground. She blushed and looked up at them. "Guess I should watch where I'm going."

McFadden released her when he saw Lorne had her and caught up with the rest of the team. Lorne waited until she was steady on her feet before letting go. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, "you should."

Aiden smiled up at him. "Honestly you're seeing me at my worst so far. I'm not normally this much of a klutz."

Lorne motioned to Murray, still walking ahead of them. "I have a demolitions expert who often attempts to blow himself and the rest of us up. On accident. So far you've only almost injured yourself. it's a refreshing change."

"How does a demolitions _expert_ almost blow himself up?" she asked incredulously.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Standard Disclaimer: Lorne belongs to the Powers that Be that created Atlantis and Stargate. The rest of the team and Aiden belong to me. Thanks to everyone that has been reading and has sent me notes. They are very appreciated._ _Oh and for those of you wondering (and even if you weren't) engi-nerd is not a typo. Engi-nerd is a term coined by a friend of mine, that we both found amusing and that I decided was a term Aiden would use._

* * *

He sighed. "I'm not really sure. Regarding McFadden's Ancient, I'd double-check anything you have him translate."

She smiled. "I don't really trust anyone's translations but my own. I mostly want McFadden to fetch, carry, and take pictures. If he can help me find a starting point for this weapon, that would helpful too."

"I had intended to put Deke at your disposal for computer stuff," Lorne informed her. "I don't know how you normally work, but we're here to support you this time."

"Not exactly your favorite type of mission, Major?" she asked.

He grimaced. "Is it that easy to tell?"

"From you?" She shook her head. "Not so much, but, well, the engi-nerds are a vocal group. They also seem to like to gossip."

"I probably don't want to know what they're saying," he replied.

She grinned. "Oh, they all admit that you're unfailing polite and that even when annoyed you tend to hold onto whatever temper you have. They also tend to agree that scientists aren't your favorite people." Her grin got wider. "Although quite a few of the female scientists wouldn't be adverse to changing your mind about that." She giggled as his ears turned red. "I think I'll keep the rest of what I heard to myself."

Lorne watched in bemusement as she quickened her pace and caught up with Deke; engaging him in conversation. McFadden turned back and looked at him, but Lorne waved him off. He didn't think the taller Marine had been close enough to hear more than snatches of their conversation, but something had obviously amused the linguist and that had caught McFadden's attention. Lorne just really didn't feel like discussing it right now.

The rest of their hike to the ruins passed without incident and without Aiden trying to continue the conversation she had started.

Aiden dropped her pack as soon as they reached the ruins and began to wander around them.

"Aiden, don't go too far," Lorne called as the rest of the team began to unhook and unload their packs in preparation for setting up camp.

Aiden waved over her shoulder to show that she had heard him, but didn't peel her attention away from the large stone blocks towering around them. Lorne thought the place looked a bit familiar, but couldn't quite place it so he turned to Deke who was looking at the stones in awe. "Something look familiar?" he asked the Britain.

Deke shaded his eyes as he looked up and then around at the stone towers. The stones stood in a circle that the team stood outside of, with standing stones topped by capstones. A few had fallen down but not nearly as many as from the one on Earth. When he had finished studying the site, Deke turned back to Lorne. "You think the Ancients built Stonehenge?" he asked.

Lorne shrugged. "I wouldn't know, but I've heard weirder ideas." He glanced around, realizing that he hadn't seen Aiden for a few moments. "Where'd Doctor Bancroft go?"

He turned, about to order the Marines to go find her, when she clambered over one of the blocks that had fallen down and hurried back over to the group. She was grinning from ear to ear and had apparently found something. "I need my laptop," she called, "from my pack."

Wall picked her pack up from where they had moved it to and brought it over to her. "Did you find something, ma'am?" he asked curiously as she crouched down by the pack and began to rummage through it.

"I dunno. Maybe. I want to get some pictures on the other side and start there with the translation. It's not exactly where Doctor Weir showed me, but I think there's something there."

"Is it out of our line of sight?" Lorne asked as she pulled her laptop out of her pack finally and then followed it with extra batteries for both the computer and her camera.

She looked up at him, her mind still apparently on whatever she had discovered. "What?" she replied.

"Can we see you from here if you go back to whatever you found?" he asked patiently, spelling out more clearing what he wanted to know. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the Marines had gone back to setting up camp and that Deke was actually helping for once, leaving him to deal with the linguist in peace. He decided he didn't want to know how that had come about.

Aiden looked over her shoulder, apparently trying to see wherever she had wandered off to. "No, I don't think so," she finally answered.

"Then I'm going with you," he informed her. He turned and called over to the rest of the team, "McFadden!"

The Gunnery Sergeant looked up from where he was holding part of a tent taunt as Wall pounded a stake into the ground. "Sir?" he questioned.

"Doctor Bancroft and I are going to look at whatever she found. We'll be back before dinner. Try not to let Murray blow up the camp once you've gotten it set up," Lorne instructed.

"Yes, sir," McFadden called back.

Lorne turned back to find Aiden had gotten to her feet and was stuffing the batteries in her vest pockets. He waited until she finished and had picked up her laptop, then motioned for her to lead the way. Instead of walking through the circle the way she had come, she led him around the circle and to the other side. He followed her as she continued around the circle until she was exactly opposite where the team was setting up camp. She set the laptop down on one of the stones that had fallen, then glanced at him and moved it to the side. "You can sit there," she offered, pointing to where she had originally set the laptop down. "Just don't touch anything else without checking with me first. Especially since you have the ATA gene."

Lorne nodded, accepting her orders. In this case, she was the more knowledgeable and the orders had been phrased more as a suggestion than an actual order. "You have about two hours til we need to break for dinner," he reminded her.

She nodded and set to work.

Lorne found himself watching her, including her in his scan of their surroundings. Unlike the other scientists, she hadn't argued over him accompanying her or tried to tell him he was getting in the way. She had given him a spot to sit near her, close enough that he could grab her quickly if there was trouble, but far enough away that he wasn't in her way.

She seemed to have a system to her work. The laptop had been left closed, partially Lorne suspected because she had less spare batteries for it than for the camera, and she was concentrating on taking pictures of the entire surface of the standing stone in front of them. She had backed up to be able to get the top into the frame since it towered above both of them and every so often she checked the screen on the back of the camera as if to be sure the pictures were clear enough. When it appeared she had finished, she shut the camera down, then took a seat on the ground, and opened the laptop. As it powered up, she pulled the memory card from the camera. He looked over her shoulder as she quickly downloaded the pictures from the card into the laptop. Lorne smiled as she opened a PowerPoint presentation and began to sort the pictures into it, ordering them the same way they appeared on the stone. "Shouldn't you translate directly from the stone?" he asked when he didn't think he'd completely break her concentration.

She glanced over her shoulder at him and didn't seem completely surprised to see him so close. "I'd get a crick in my neck," she pointed out. "Those stones are easily nine feet tall. I'm barely five feet. Besides its not unusual for me to translate from pictures or even drawings. At least this time I can check back before we leave if I have any problems."

"So what do you think you found here?" he asked.

She pointed to one of the words that was repeated a few times in some of the other pictures or something that looked similar to Lorne. "This says drones or what we call the drones. Its not exactly what the Ancients called them, but its what we've come to realize is their word for those weapons."

Lorne reached for his radio, intending to send one of the Marines running for the 'gate if they had found a drone storage facility. "Where are they?" he asked.

"Where are what?" she asked as she turned back to the computer.

"Where did they hide the drones?" he asked, trying to remind himself that Aiden didn't think the way the military did and wouldn't necessarily realize that they needed the drones.

She shook her head. "They aren't here. They may have never been here. I haven't figured out exactly what this place is, but I don't think they stored weapons here." She turned and looked him in the eye. "I think they created them here."

"So you found what exactly?" he asked, beginning to feel like he was pulling teeth to get information out of her.

"I think, but I'm not sure yet, that these are instructions on how to create drones. I think we've found kinda like a really big instruction manual."

Lorne looked at all the stones around them. Even if they couldn't move the ones on the ground and the other ones turned out to be nothing more than the Ancients' recipe for chicken soup, if Aiden was right about this one stone, she had just justified their trip. "Save what you have there and let's go rejoin the others," he instructed. "I think its time to share with the rest of the class."

She nodded and closed up her laptop. Lorne waited until she had picked up her camera and then helped her to her feet. Once again she led him around the circle and he wondered why she had come through it before, but now seemed determined to avoid the center. He decided it wasn't worth asking her now though.

When they reached the rest of the team, the other four had completed the tent set up and opened MREs for all of them. Lorne knew if they were staying more than a day or so as planned that he'd have to let the Marines look for another food source. None of them would want to survive on MREs for four days. It wouldn't be the first time they had, but with a supposedly uninhabited planet, there probably wasn't a problem with letting them scout around a bit.

Aiden accepted the food from Murray and gave him a smile as she put her laptop down and sat on the ground by the fire they had started. Lorne unclipped his P-90 from his vest and sat down next to her, accepting his own MRE from McFadden. He made a face as he saw the chicken with noodles, but supposed it could be worse.

"What did you find?" Deke asked as the rest of them settled down to eat.

Aiden swallowed the bite she had taken and started to open her laptop, but Lorne pushed her hand away. "Eat and talk," he instructed. "Show and tell after you've got food in your stomach."

She grinned. "All right. I found the word or symbol or whatever for drone or what we call drones." She laughed at the gleeful light in the Marines' eyes at her words. "Sorry, boys. Nothing to go boom. I think its just an instruction manual."

McFadden nodded. "That would still be helpful. An instruction manual to building them?"

She nodded, again swallowing what was in her mouth. "I think so. The major didn't let me translate all that much before we came back over so I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure." She looked down at what she was eating as if seeing it for the first time. "This tastes like chicken," she announced.

"What's wrong with that, ma'am?" Wall asked.

She poked it with her fork as if unsure if it would strike back at her. "I think its supposed to be macaroni and cheese."

All of the Marines laughed and even Lorne had to grin because she was looking highly offended at her food. When they had settled down, Wall explained, "They all pretty much taste like chicken, ma'am. Do you want to trade for something that's supposed to be chicken?"

She shook her head. "No, I'll just pretend its snake. That also tastes like chicken."

All of them looked a little wide-eyed. Lorne knew that Wall and Murray had served in Iraq and McFadden in Afghanistan before coming to Atlantis, but the scientists tended to be more insular for the most part and most of them hadn't been out in the field before. Aiden was surprising all of them. "Where did you eat snake?" Murray finally asked.

"I have five older brothers," Aiden replied. "I've eaten all sorts of strange things, but honestly the snake was at a dig in umm well I can't remember exactly where we were, but a snake got into one of the archaeologist's tents. I shot it and the natives insisted I try some." She shrugged. "It wasn't bad."

"You shot a snake?" Wall asked. Lorne thought he sounded a little amazed and he was glad he wasn't the one who asked the question because he was sure he would have sounded the same. He couldn't believe she could calmly speak about shooting a snake, although he knew she had to have proven she could shoot in order to be sent into the field with them.

She shrugged. "My brother, Eddie's in the Corps. He taught me to shoot when I was thirteen. Mama wasn't too happy about it, but she didn't really stop him either. No one else at the dig was willing to attempt it so I did. The snake was ready to strike, it was shoot it or possibly lose the archaeologist. I did what I had to do."

Lorne had to admire the practicality of the statement, even if it did sound a little odd coming out of her mouth. "I think we got a little off-topic," he said. "Anything else you want to explain about what you found?"

She shook her head. "I won't know more until I have a chance to study the pictures. At this point its just speculation."

"Then after we eat, you and McFadden can work. Just remember he does have to stand a watch and you need some sleep," Lorne reminded her.

After they finished eating, Aiden helped cleaned up and then settled down with her laptop and McFadden by her side. Lorne sat nearby, keeping watch while Murray and Wall went a little distance away from the camp with the heating element from one of the MREs. Lorne had seen the show before so wasn't surprised when there was soon a muffled boom from the direction of the two sergeants. Murray was allowed to explode the unused heating elements as long as he was careful and didn't blow up anything the team might need later. Since Wall was with him, Lorne assumed the rules he had laid down had been kept. Aiden had jumped at the sound of the boom, but she hadn't yelled and when no one else reacted, she continued working. Lorne was glad to see that she wasn't prone to panicking at the sound of explosions.


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: So finally something is going to happen...Just in case you forgot, Lorne doesn't belong to me, but everyone else in this chapter pretty much does. This is probably the last chapter for about a week or better. I leave Friday for my sister's and I've got an all day meetting at work tomorrow and I need to do laundry and pack and stuff when I get home. Sis does have 'net, but I'm not taking my files with me to her house. So this will have to hold ya til I get back and until after I get settled in at work (since school starts next week). Have a good holiday weekend y'all._

* * *

Lorne looked up as Aiden crawled out of her tent. She stretched when she was upright, then made her way over to him. He held out a cup of coffee to her. "Sleep well?" he asked.

She shrugged as she took the coffee and waved away the sugar and powered milk he offered. "As well as could be expected. I want to look at a different section of the circle today."

"Not a problem. Deke took Murray and Wall and went for a walk. He picked up an energy reading he wanted to check out," Lorne explained.

She nodded. "I'll see if I can find anything about it on the stones then. Do any of them have the gene? They need to be careful if they do."

"Deke does," Lorne answered, "but he's one of the induced gene carriers. He can work things like the life signs detector, but generally can't initialize things. McFadden also has an induced gene, but his took a little better. He can generally initialize things and most of the Ancient tech works for him. I'm the only one with a natural gene on the team."

"You two shouldn't go anywhere on your own then. And don't touch anything."

Lorne nodded. "We're pretty used to that, ma'am."

"You know you were calling me Aiden yesterday and then when you addressed your team you called me Doctor Bancroft. I really don't care if they all call me Aiden," she said as she continued to eat.

Lorne shook his head. "The Marines can't or won't. it's a chain of command thing. Deke probably will, just give him a few days. He doesn't have much respect for the military, but he seems to be amused by you."

She finished up the last of her breakfast. "Well, you can call me Aiden then. I'll try to remember to answer to Doctor. Okay if I get to work?"

Lorne nodded and stood as she stood. The other three had taken off at first light, tracking whatever Deke had located leaving Lorne and McFadden alone in camp until Aiden woke up. It hadn't really been that long, but McFadden had spent the time poking around the ruins trying to find out something about the energy reading.

Now McFadden rejoined them as he saw Aiden preparing to work. The two soon fell to talking in a mixture of Ancient and English, mixing in a few other words that Lorne couldn't quite recognize. He trailed along behind them as they decided which of the stones they were going to work on today or at least that's what he assumed they were doing, since McFadden was pointing to stones and Aiden would either shake her head immediately or tip her head up to scan the stone to consider it. Lorne had to admire her patience with the Marine since he was rather insistent that she check out some of the stones closer that she rejected immediately. She seemed to have a good argument for not starting with any of those stones though because McFadden's statements didn't sway her. The two finally settled on a stone about a quarter of the way around the circle.

Lorne looked around, trying to orient himself as they set themselves up to work. He finally decided their camp was north on the compass, which would place the stone Aiden had worked on the night before at south. The stone they had picked this morning was therefore at west on the standard compass. He knew that had absolutely no relation to where they actually were on the planet, but it helped him figured out where they were and also where the rest of his team had headed that morning; east from their current camp.

They worked on the stone Aiden had selected all morning with Lorne keeping watch as the other two worked. He had to admit Aiden was good at what she did, both the translating and direction McFadden. She didn't talk down to him when he got something incorrect and she seemed to take his ideas into consideration. Lorne was about ready to call a halt and insist that they all eat lunch when the three explorers came trudging back into the site.

Murray had a cut across his cheek, but it apparently hadn't been bad enough for Deke to do more than clean it since it didn't have a bandage on it. Wall looked like he had taken a tumble somewhere and Deke was limping slightly. Lorne stood up as they rejoined the group. "Do I want to ask what happened?" he asked.

Wall unclipped Murray's backpack and set it on the ground, then did the same for his own. Both of them took seats near the packs and pulled out MREs. Deke pulled off his own backpack and settled down next to them. "Murray tripped over a root or something and fell down a hill. He took both of us down with him."

"Any of you seriously injured?" Lorne asked.

Deke shook his head. "My ankle's a bit tender and Murray's face got cut up a little, but that's it. Wall's just dirty. He had time to tuck and roll. It wasn't a big hill."

Lorne nodded, then turned his attention back to McFadden and Aiden. "Lunch break, you two."

Aiden blinked and turned her attention to him, looking like she was coming out of a fog. She glanced up at the sky and frowned. "We've been working that long?"

"Yes. Come on." He shook the MRE he had been handed by Deke at her. "Come eat and then you can go back to work."

Aiden smiled in response and nodded at McFadden when he offered her a hand to help her over a piece of stone that had fallen. Each of the guys could easily step over it, but Aiden's shorter legs made it harder. Aiden settled down, cross-legged, in the circle they had created and accepted a meal packet from the group they were passing around.

Lunch was a hurried affair since Aiden obviously wanted to get back to work. Lorne really couldn't blame her for that since they were on a time schedule. He watched her carefully to make sure she ate at least the main entree of the meal since he knew from past experience that the scientists, especially once they got started on a project, would often forget to eat. When she started to get up with only half her entree gone, he gently steered her back to her seat. "You've got to finish all of it or eat another part of the meal," he instructed. "I don't want to have to explain to Doctor Weir how I let you pass out from hunger."

She looked him. "I can honestly say I've never passed out from hunger."

"Well, now is not the time to start. If you can't stomach the food, take a power bar or something, but you need to eat more."

She nodded and dug a power bar out of the pack on the ground next to her. "You do realize I'm smaller than your Marines and therefore I eat less, right?"

"Even you need to eat more than half an entree. Have you two found anything interesting yet?" He followed along behind her as she made her way back over to the stone they had spent the morning working on.

She shook her head. She pointed to the stone to the left of the one they had been translating. "I think this one is a genetics experiment. I'll make sure to get pictures and a translation for Carson before we leave. Maybe it can help him." She indicated the one they had been working on. "This one, I'm not so sure." She looked up at him. "Its Ancient, but it also seems to be in a code."

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"I can read it," she explained as she waited for her laptop to boot back up, "but its not making any sense."

"So why not switch to another stone?" he asked.

"Cuz I never could resist a challenge," she replied as she settled back down to work. Deke and McFadden joined them and she quickly set them to work. Since Deke was the tallest she set him to work taking pictures of the stone she thought held the genetics experiment. McFadden went back to helping her with whatever they had been doing before lunch while Lorne settled down on the stone that Aiden had stepped over. Wall and Murray were regulated to KP duty, tidying up the area where they had eaten lunch and then sorting out the packs. Lorne knew they were probably as bored as he was, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Deke finished taking the pictures of the stone and was crouched next to Aiden, showing them to her, when McFadden stood up and went to take a closer look at the stone. Lorne knew that Aiden was always careful not to touch the stones or anything else until she was certain nothing would be triggered by her. Most things the Ancients left behind required a gene carrier to initialize it first, but sometimes that only required proximity and there had been three gene carriers in close proximity to the circle for almost twenty-four hours.

In hindsight, they all should have seen it coming. Aiden looked up from the laptop as McFadden raised his hand and reached for the stone. If Deke hadn't been leaning over her, she might have had time to scramble to her feet. As it was, she tried to get up, yelling as she moved, "No! McFadden, don't!" But the warning came too late as his hand touched the stone. There was a sound not unlike an explosion and a blast of light. Aiden was propelled backwards by the force of something.

Murray and Wall came running from the other side of the circle in time to see her land in a crumpled heap a few feet from where she had been sitting. She groaned as Wall reached her and stirred. Since she didn't seem to be unconscious, he helped her sit up. Murray reached Deke next and moved to roll him over. "Don't touch him!" Aiden yelped, causing the young Marine to pull back hurriedly.

"What happened, ma'am?" Wall asked. "And where's the Major?"

Aiden blinked her eyes, still trying to adjust from the light that had blinded her for a few moments. She could clearly see Deke and McFadden, both of them clearly unconscious, but absolutely no sign of Lorne. "Oh shite," she breathed.

"You okay, ma'am?" Wall asked, kneeling down next to her.

Aiden nodded and began struggling to her feet. She moved her laptop, which had landed on her legs, to the side. "I'm fine. Are they alive?"

Murray felt for a pulse and nodded as Deke groaned. "Yeah. He's alive." He pushed the man on the shoulder as the civilian tried to sit up. "Hold still, Deke."

"What the hell happened?" he ground out.

Aiden made her way over to him. "McFadden touched something he shouldn't have." She turned to Wall. "Check him. Make sure he's still alive, but don't move him unless you have to." She turned her attention back to Deke. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was on a non-stop drinking binge for three days. What about you?" Deke replied.

"I'm fine. I wasn't out for long. Wall's checking on McFadden, but he's still out." She and Murray lent their assistance as Deke struggled up to a sitting position. He groaned as his center of gravity changed. "I think my lack of gene prevented me from getting the headache and I just got knocked out from the concussion."

"How's the Major?" Deke asked, as he fought back the urge to vomit.

Aiden looked sheepish. "We don't know."

"He's not awake yet? He was farther away from the blast or whatever that was. He should be waking up already," Deke said.

"We don't know how he is because he's not anywhere in sight," Aiden replied. "We haven't had time to go looking for him yet."

Deke turned to look at her. "You _lost_ him?!"

She glared at him. "Technically I didn't lose him. I wasn't the one who set off whatever it was! McFadden was. So if you want to accuse someone of _losing_ your major, blame the jarhead!"


	6. Chapter 6

_So I had an awesome vacation and then a whiplash of a first week at work. In reward for making it through the week, I sat down and wrote last night and didn't crack open my school books at all. I started the sequel to "Midnight Mission" and also got further on this one. So y'all get a new chapter in reward. Just a reminder, Lorne doesn't belong to me, but everyone else in this chapter does.  
_

* * *

Wall looked up from where he was bent over McFadden. "Arguing about who did what isn't going to help us," he broke in. "McFadden's still unconscious and I don't have enough med training to help him. Deke, if you're well enough, get your ass over here and check him over. We've got to figure out what happened and also get in touch with Atlantis and tell them this mission is FUBAR." 

Murray had pulled a bar of C-4 out of his pack. Now he turned to Deke and waved the brick at him. "D'ya want me to blow it up, sir?"

All of them reacted with different levels of panic. "NO!" they shouted.

Murray actually jumped back a little in shock. "Why not?" he asked.

Aiden set her hand on his arm as Deke carefully made his way over to McFadden. "We don't know what happened, Murray," she explained in a soft voice. "If you blow it up, you might kill the major. Just wait until we figure it out. Then you have my permission to blow up the whole planet if that's what it takes to get him back."

Murray nodded, but didn't look reassured. "I just don't know what to do."

"Just try to hang on for a little while. We'll figure it out," she assured him.

The first sensation he was aware of was pain. Hot, sharp spikes that drove into his skull like someone was digging a railroad spike into his brain. He remembered a friend describing a migraine to him once and thought humorlessly that he could now tell her he completely understood. The second sensation that he was aware of was darkness. At first he thought he had gone blind, but quickly realized his eyes were closed. He opened them and blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the minimal lighting.

When he could see again, although he couldn't see much due to the lack of light, he discovered he wasn't in the stone circle anymore. He was laying flat on his back, an uncomfortable position with his pack still attached, staring up at a ceiling. He knew that moving was a painful, stupid option, but he still started to lever himself upright, bracing against the nausea he was sure was coming. Once upright, he took long, slow deep breaths, fighting down the immediate urge to vomit. He wouldn't know how small the room or whatever he was in was until he started exploring and he had no wish to smell his vomit for however long he was trapped here.

It took longer than he liked for his stomach to settle, but since he had no idea how he had gotten here, he didn't have any frame of reference for how long it should have taken. Once his stomach stopped rolling, he reached behind himself and released his backpack, setting it down on the floor behind him. Another few moments and he felt confident enough to get to his feet. The room spun when he stood and he grabbed for the wall that was next to him until the wave of dizziness passed. Once he was stable again, he pulled a flashlight out of his pack and began to explore his prison.

Deke checked McFadden over, declared him just knocked out, and that it was safe to move him. The other two Marines, with directions from Deke, rolled McFadden onto his back and then carried him over to the camp. While they were away, Aiden moved closer to the stone and began trying to locate what McFadden had touched.

Deke came back as she raised her hand to trace something on the stone. "Don't!" he yelled.

Aiden jerked her hand back in response and turned to look at him. "Whatever he set off requires the gene," she explained, stepping back from the stone. "I don't have the gene. You would be more likely to set it off than I would."

Deke nodded in response and looked at the stone. "What _exactly_ happened?"

Aiden turned back to the stone. "Exactly? I would say that McFadden touched something. Whatever he touched set off some sort of counter measures. From the reactions we had, I would say it was a defense mechanism. Since it knocked you and McFadden out and didn't do anything to me, I would say there's a glitch somewhere. I don't think the Ancients would have designed counter measures that killed them. As for the major, I'm not sure. I don't think he was killed, but he's not here. I need to study the stone more and see if I can figure out what exactly McFadden set off. Then maybe I can figure out where Major Lorne is or what happened to him."

"So in simple terms?" Deke asked.

"In simple terms?" Aiden looked up at him. "Until I to break this code, we're screwed."

Deke sighed. "I was hoping you had better news. All right. I'm going to send Wall and Murray back to the 'gate and have them radio Atlantis and get us some help. You keep trying to break this code and work on translating that stone."

She nodded. "I think I've got a starting point."

It took Lorne far longer than he would have liked to explore the room he found himself locked in. He explored in fits and starts, stymied not just by the lack of light since all he had was his one flashlight, but also by the pain that still sliced through his head at inopportune moments. He had taken some aspirin as soon as he felt sure he wasn't going to throw it back up, but it didn't seem to make a noticeable difference in the pain. Carefully, he counted and paced out the room, discovering that it was twenty-five feet by forty feet and that he was the only person there.

The room was suspiciously empty he discovered as he explored, except for a console in the corner opposite the one he had woken up in. Finally he was unable to ignore it any longer and he made his way over to the console. Taking a deep breath, he set his hands on it and tried not to jerk away when everything began to light up. He'd been in the Pegasus Galaxy for almost a year he should be used to things lighting up in his presence and reading his mind, but it still sometimes spooked him when it happened.

Whirring behind him had him spinning around and reaching for his nine millimeter, but he stopped as the hole in the wall revealed a bed, not unlike the one he had back on Atlantis, that was slowly sliding into the room. Another alcove had slid open and what he could only assume was supposed to be a table and chair was also making its presence known. He slipped his gun back into his holster and spoke aloud to the empty room, "And that just takes creepy to a whole new level."

Despite having McFadden still unconscious in the tent, Deke had taken to hovering over Aiden as she tried to translate and break the code on the stone that had caused all the trouble. She was about ready to throw something at him, and only the fact that he was almost two feet taller than her was staying her hand, when both their radios beeped.

Deke reacted faster, reaching up and keying his active, at the same time, asking, "Lorne?"

The voice on the other end sounded almost apologetic. "No, Deke, its Wall. We've reached the 'gate."

"How soon can Atlantis send us a SAR team?" Deke asked, as he motioned for Aiden to keep working as she listened.

"We haven't dialed Atlantis yet. There's a shell or something over the 'gate." Wall sounded confused.

Aiden keyed into the conversation and asked, "Wall, can you describe it? Does it look like the shield Atlantis has? Or is it something different?"

There was a pause and Deke and Aiden could only assume that both Marines were studying the 'gate, trying to figure out how best to convey what they were seeing. Finally Wall began speaking, "It looks like Atlantis's shield right after its activated, but it surrounds the whole 'gate. It covers both the front and the back."

Aiden nodded and tried to recall what she knew about the shield on the 'gate, but this was a little out of her field. "Can we send a radio transmission through the Atlantis shield?" she asked Deke.

He nodded. "Yes." Speaking into the radio now, he continued, "Wall, dial Atlantis and tell them what's going on. Do inot/i let them send anyone with that shield up. Explain as much as we know, include the shield, and set up a series of check in times. On your way back, plant the relays for the radios."

"Yes, Sir. Dialing now." As Wall clicked the radio off, they could hear him begin to dial the 'gate.

Deke looked down at Aiden. "That's an interesting development."

She swapped out the batteries on the laptop and set it to booting up. "I'd say we're even more screwed than we thought."

"Have you made any progress?"

"A little, but can I be honest with you?" She stood up and stretched as the laptop whirled quietly.

He nodded. "Sure. Why not?"

"I could work a lot better if you weren't hovering over me. I may not know Major Lorne as well as you do, but I certainly don't want to leave him here. I promise to call you as soon as I find something."

He sighed. "Sorry. I guess I knew I was making you nervous, but I don't exactly know what to do with myself."

"Why don't you go check on McFadden? As soon as I break this, I'll yell for you."

After the bed and other furniture appeared, Lorne waited a full five minutes with the flashlight turned on the room and his back to the wall before he moved. Finally he decided that the room wasn't going to attack him and he might as well use what it provided. He set his pack down on the table and unpacked it, making an inventory of the contents.

When he finished, he had a small pile of usable items: nine MREs, two canteens full of water, a spare pack of batteries the right size for his flashlight, a deck of cards, the small sketch pad he normally brought on missions, a pack of drawing pencils, his iPod, and two spare t-shirts. He also had a stack of items like his entrenching tool that he wasn't exactly sure what he would do with.

He knew from what his friend had told him that the best way to get rid of a migraine was to sleep it off so once he repacked his bag, he made his way over to the bed, took off his boots and holster, slid his gun underneath the pillow and lay down. Within moments, he was sound asleep.

Aiden reached up and keyed her radio open, establishing contact with Deke. "He's alive," she announced.

"We're on our way," Deke replied before she had a chance to continue speaking.

She backed up slightly as all three of the men charged into the clearing. "Maybe I should rephrase my statement," she said as they began looking around, obviously searching for their missing Major.

Deke waved for the two Marines to stand down and looked at her. "Why are you rephrasing?" he asked.

"I think he's alive. Okay, look, I explained this is an instruction manual, right?" She waited until the three nodded. "What McFadden triggered is a security feature. It looks like if the scientists were attacked, all of them got into a certain section of the circle and then one of them triggered the device. We're lucky McFadden wasn't killed because apparently the person who does the triggering is essentially committing suicide to protect the rest. Then when the danger disappears, someone comes and lets them out."

"Lets them out?" Wall questioned. "So why weren't we all sent there?"

"Apparently the rest of us weren't in the space to be transported. I would assume that since Major Lorne isn't here, he's in this safe place," Aiden explained.

"You said someone has to let them, or in this case him, out," Deke interrupted. "How do we do that?"

"Still working on that. Since it didn't kill McFadden or the rest of us outright, I would guess there are some glitches from ten thousand plus years of non-use. That's why I qualified my statement by saying I think the Major is still alive."

Deke motioned for the two Marines to leave. "Go back, keep an eye on McFadden," he instructed. When the two of them were out of earshot, he turned back to Aiden. "So I'm thinking it wouldn't be a good idea to let Murray blow everything up?" he asked, sitting down beside the smaller linguist.

"No, probably not."

* * *

_Author's Addendum: So I sat down and typed up a lot of information about Aiden and the boys this past week. Then my computer refused to let me copy and paste. So I sent it to my cousin and she put it into my journal. Then I went in and edited it all. So now if y'all would like to find out more about the background of the team; go here: http://shanachie13. . Every so often as I add more information, I will update it._  



	7. Chapter 7

_Author's Note: This chapter almost didn't happen because it just did not want to upload tonite! So here's another installment. Enjoy. Remember Lorne's not mine (such a shame cuz then we'd be seeing him a whole lot more), but Aiden and the boys are. I got Season 3 for my birthday so hopefully I'll have get this finished soon._

_ If anyone is interested in learning more about my characters, you can go here: or this: http://shanachie13. cutid1 --just take out the space after the # cuz keeps eating my link. also I'm trying to put together a playlist for the boys (including Lorne) so if anyone has any song or band suggestions, please PM them to me._

* * *

He watched as her eyes went from the stone to her laptop and back again, then she got up to look at something on one of the fallen stones. "Is there anything we can do to help?" he asked. 

She shook her head absentmindedly. "Not unless you can read Ancient. May I ask you a question?"

Deke leaned back against a stone that she didn't seem to be using. "Sure. I can't guarantee I'll answer it though."

"Why does everyone call you Deke when everyone else is called by their last name or rank or what have you?"

She was surprised by the laugh that burst out of Deke at her question. "Well, that's definitely not the question I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

"Something like why am I taking over the mission or why do the trouble twins obey me so easily?"

She shrugged as she continued working despite their conversation. "I figured that was just you being the one with the most seniority still standing. So are you willing to answer the question?"

"Sure and the answer is because my last name causes too many issues."

She seemed to consider this for a few minutes. "I don't get it."

"My last name is Zulu. Are you familiar with the military alphabet?" When she nodded, he continued, "Z is Zulu so it just kept creating problems. It was just easier for them all to call me Deke."

"That makes sense."

* * *

When Lorne woke up, he breathed a sigh of relief that most of the migraine was gone. He slipped his boots back on and took another dose of aspirin, then checked his watch. He had been in the room for almost nine hours. Obviously if it was an easy fix his team would have already gotten him out. Suddenly he felt like smacking himself in the head. All of these hours and he hadn't even tried his radio. Reaching up, he keyed a channel open and called, "McFadden? Deke? This is Lorne. Respond if you can hear me." He waited through a ten count, then switched the channel and tried again. Slowly he worked his way through the channels on the radio; calling for McFadden, Deke, and the other boys, and then even for Aiden and Atlantis. Finally after thirty minutes of trying, he sighed and gave up, shutting off the radio to conserve the battery. He was either too far from the rest of the group for the radio to reach them or something was blocking the signal. He refused to consider that the team might be dead or injured.

He sat down at the table and broke down the MREs, rationing them out so they would last longer than nine meals. He also went through his pack again and came up with a few power bars he had missed the first time through. He ate a meal in silence, trying to ignore how much it gave him the shivers that the only sounds he heard were ones he made. He had gotten used to Atlantis never truly being quiet with missions going out and scientists working at all hours. Underlying it all was the hum of Atlantis herself. Here despite the Ancient technology, that hum was absent.

After eating, he tided up the table area, tucking the garbage into a bag and tying it shut, then stowing it in a corner away from the furniture. He returned to the table and decided to sketch for a little while before making another attempt with the radio. He was trying to arrange the flashlight so that the beam fell on his sketchbook so he could see what he was drawing when there was an audible click and the room flooded with light.

He jumped to his feet, knocking the chair to the ground with a clatter, and drew his side arm. Falling into a defensive crouch, he scanned the room.

* * *

Wall approached Aiden slowly. She was sitting on the stone, in the classic thinking pose, where they had last seen Lorne. Her brown eyes were glued to the stone she had been translating for hours, but she didn't seem to be working at the moment. Wall waited for a few minutes, but when Aiden didn't turn, he finally spoke, "Doctor Bancroft, you need to come eat."

She jumped in surprise and screamed, causing Murray and Deke to race into the clearing; guns drawn. Both lowered their P-90s when they saw just Aiden and Wall. "What happened?" Deke snapped.

Aiden had leaped to her feet when they thundered into the clearing and now she sank back down onto the stone. "I'm sorry. Wall startled me."

Deke sighed as he clipped his P-90 to his vest. "It's okay. I needed that adrenaline spike." He looked over at Murray who was still frantically scanning the area and snapped his fingers at the young Marine. "Stand _down_, Murray," he ordered. He waited until Murray had relaxed and handed his P-90 over to Wall. "Okay," Deke said, once the immediate crisis was passed, "obviously we overreacted. From now on though, no one goes anywhere by themselves."

Aiden opened her mouth to protest, but Wall cut her off, "He's right, Dr. Bancroft. You especially need to have someone with you. If we lose you, we're never getting the Major back or all of us home."

She looked surprised that Wall had been the one to reprimand her. "I understand, Wall," she said, laying a gentle hand on his arm. "I just need to remind myself that y'all aren't doing this to frustrate me."

Deke grinned down at her. "Lorne hates scientists, Aiden, but he'd never forgive us if we returned you mutilated or julienned."

Aiden choked back a laugh, sure that it was just the stress of the situation that made Deke's statement so hysterical. "I'll put myself into your capable hands," she informed him as seriously as she could. "Now I'm pretty sure Wall said something about it being time to eat?"

Deke nodded. "Food and it's going to be too dark to see soon so you might as well come back to the camp for tonight."

Aiden agreed and Wall waited with her while she gathered up her laptop, camera, and all the peripherals that she had scattered around the site. She slung her pack onto her back and waved off his helping hand, then motioned for him to lead the way back to camp. "I've got it all," she explained when he started to reach for her pack. "You concentrate on watching for trouble."

"You sure, ma'am?" he asked.

She smiled. "It's not that heavy, Wall. Besides your job is to keep me in one piece. I can handle my equipment."

He nodded, a shy smile on his face. "Yes, ma'am. Through the circle or around?"

She looked through the circle, knowing that it would take them less time to get to the camp going that way, then turned in the other direction. "Around," she informed him.

Wall assisted her over the stone that was in their way, then fell in step with her shorter strides. "Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, what was going through your mind when I startled you?" he queried.

"Major Lorne," she answered.

"What?" Wall asked, looking down at her.

She waved a hand at the air. "That came out wrong. That came out really, really wrong. I was thinking about the major and the situation and how no matter how much I work and translate and read and figure this out, it doesn't seem to make any sense."

They reached the camp as she finished her sentence and Deke looked at her. "What do you mean it doesn't make sense?" he asked.

Aiden took the MRE that Murray held out to her, returning his shy smile with one of her own. She started to sit and almost overbalanced herself with her pack. Wall reached out and undid the clips, catching the pack as it began to fall. "I told you this stone was in code?" she questioned, beginning to eat absentmindedly as the rest of the team sat down and started their meal. Deke nodded, but didn't say anything for fear she would stop talking. "I found the key a little while ago," she confessed.

"So you broke the code?" Wall asked.

"I did break the code, but what I found isn't making any sense. I've got to be missing something," Aiden muttered half to the rest of the group and half to herself.

Deke patted her gently on the back. "Take a break. Get some sleep. Everything will look better in the morning."

Aiden picked at her food. "I guess."

* * *

Lorne straightened up after a few moments when he realized that the light was not a prelude to an attack. He took a new look at his prison and was amazed to discover that it was now lit from overhead by recessed lighting. He could now clearly see the whole room.

He was actually relieved to see that he had been right and he was alone in the room. He had a lot of confidence in his team. They wouldn't leave him behind, even if that hadn't been part of them as Marines, Sheppard had made it part of every Atlantis team member. If they couldn't figure out a way to free him from here by activating whatever had sent him here, McFadden would give Murray free rein to blow things up.

He used the light to explore his prison again and made sure there was nothing dangerous. He didn't find anything that would harm him, but he also didn't find anything that he could use to contact the outside world or anything to eat. He studied the console for a few moments, but his Ancient wasn't even as good as McFadden's. He could read numbers for the most part and he could follow what he needed when flying the jumper, but most of that was just because he had been a pilot for years.

After frustrating himself for twenty minutes, he gave up on trying to understand the console and went back to the table, settling down with his sketch book. At least he would finally have some time to work on his drawing.

* * *

When Aiden exited her tent the next morning, she found Deke and McFadden sitting by the fire pit. They were facing each other and Deke had a penlight that he was flicking at McFadden's eyes. "Hey, you're awake," Aiden greeted the Marine. "How are you feeling?" 

McFadden batted the light away. "Enough, Deke. You're going to make me blind." He looked up at Aiden. "I'm fine, Doc. Got a little bit of a headache, but ready to work. Deke filled me in. Any idea where the major went?"

"A little bit, yes." She studied him for a few minutes. "If your headache gets worse, I have something stronger than the aspirin that you have. I get pretty bad headaches sometimes so Carson gave me something."

McFadden nodded. "Thank you for the offer."

"It's there if you need it. I'm sure Deke can explain to Carson why you took it. Now let's go find your major."

"Our major," McFadden corrected.

Aiden nodded. "Our major," she agreed.

Deke held an MRE up to her. "Food first."

Aiden made a face and scooped up a couple of Power Bars from the pile that had been made by the packs. "Food?" she questioned. "And where are Wall and Murray?"

Deke nodded, accepting the Power Bars as a substitute. "They went to scout around a little. See if they could find the major."

"Is that safe?" Aiden hefted her pack and started off towards the stone she had been working on.

Deke shrugged. "About as safe as anything else. Hold up and wait for me and McFadden."

Aiden stopped and sighed. "McFadden and me. Yes, I'm waiting." She unwrapped one of the Power Bars and began to eat while Deke threw dirt on the fire and McFadden policed the area. Much quicker than Aiden expected, both men were ready to go.

McFadden went directly for the stone once they had walked around the circle while Aiden began to unburden herself. As he reached for something, Deke slapped his hand away. "No," he snapped. "You are _NOT_ touching anything without permission."

Aiden handed the Marine her camera and pointed to another stone. "Take pictures of that stone. I need the whole stone. Then move left and take that stone. Continue working left til you run out of space on the memory card." She handed him a second card. "Swap the cards and continue on. And _don't_ touch anything."

Deke looked at her as she stepped up to the stone and began to trace the writing with a finger bear millimeters above the stone. "Is that safe?" he asked.

"No gene," she answered absentmindedly. "I couldn't set it off if I wanted to." She continued to peer at the writing for a few more minutes, almost pressing her nose up against the stone. "Boot up my laptop, please," she requested as she knelt down and pulled some grass away from the bottom of the stone. "Safety," she muttered. "Comfort. Comfort? That doesn't make sense. No, that one's protection." She knee-walked to the next stone and frowned. "That's not helpful." She pushed herself to her feet and returned to the first stone.

"What is it?" Deke asked.

"Chicken soup," Aiden replied.

"What?!" Deke asked. The look he gave her indicated he thought she had lost her mind.

Aiden waved at the stone she had indicated wasn't helpful. "It's a recipe book."

"Yeah. And somehow that makes total sense," Deke commented sarcastically.

Aiden snorted, even as she went back to digging at the bottom of the stone. "When has anything the Ancients done made sense?"

"There is that." Deke turned his head to check on McFadden's progress. The Marine was moving slowly, but he couldn't decide if that was due to the headache or Aiden's instructions. He made a mental note to keep an eye on the Marine and turned back to face the linguist who had managed to make a size-able hole in the ground with her hands. "You know we have entrenching tools," he commented.

"What?" She looked up at him and her brown eyes cleared.

"We have shovels, Doc," he told her.

She nodded. "Good. We're gonna need them." She stood up and wiped her hands on her pants. "And we're gonna need Wall and Murray. You think they're within radio range?"

"They better be," McFadden called over to them.

"Call them. And then go get the shovels. And we'll probably need something to use for leverage, too," Aiden ordered.

"Why?" Deke asked as McFadden went back to camp to fetch the entrenching tools. Deke reminded himself that he hadn't yet told McFadden that no one was supposed to wander off alone. The camp was within shouting distance though, it should be safe enough.

Aiden turned and pointed at the stone they had all been using as a seat at various times; the stone Lorne had been sitting on when he disappeared. "Because the answer we need is on that stone."


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Note: So I've had a couple of people asking me when this is going to be finished...most notably my cousin who stayed up until I got home from work last night and demanded "Did you finish it?" as soon as I said "hi" to her. In answer I am posting this chapter. I actually am ALMOST finished. I've got just about all of the end written and I need to go back and fill in three parts that I skipped over because I needed a playlist for Lorne and to decide what his family life was like. Plus I was having a problem getting Elizabeth to co-operate (and she's still not completely making me happy)._

_Anyway NO Lorne in this one, but ya get Sheppard and Elizabeth instead and finally some action! And I suspect that I will finish up the story by the end of the month at the absolute latest. Happy reading, y'all._

_ And just so you are clear, Sheppard and Elizabeth (oh and neither does Chuck--almost forgot about him) don't belong to me, but Aiden and the boys do!_

* * *

Sheppard strolled into the control room, trying to look more casual than he felt. He knew that they would be dialing M3X-721 for a check-in with Lorne's team. Elizabeth looked up as he joined her on the balcony overlooking the 'gate and she gave him a tight smile. She knew he was on edge because he couldn't do anything about his missing XO. He had already started McKay working on a way to disrupt the shield on the planet, but so far all of the simulations had resulted in what Sheppard had termed the smashed bug syndrome and the rescue team winding up dead. Elizabeth knew that McKay was working hard, if only to keep Sheppard off his back. She turned to look at Chuck and instructed, "Dial M3X-721 and establish radio contact with the team."

They stood in silence as the sequence was dialed and the wormhole established. Chuck opened a channel and spoke, "Deke, Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard are calling for your report."

"Sure," the Britain's voice came back. "Just a minute. The doc can give you more information."

"Have you found Lorne?" Sheppard broke in.

"Um, no," Aiden answered.

"No?" Sheppard replied, exchanging glances with Elizabeth. "Well, what the hell have you been doing?"

"I've discovered that Major Lorne is most likely still alive and trapped in a security feature. I've been translating as fast as I can, but I keep getting forced to rest and eat." There was a discussion that Elizabeth and Sheppard couldn't quite make out and then Aiden's voice came back. "I think I found the stone that will tell us how to get Lorne out or at least tell us where he is, but its currently upside down and buried in the dirt. As soon as Wall and Murray get back, we're going to get to work."

Sheppard opened his mouth and Elizabeth was sure he was going to berate the team, so she broke in, "John, go down and make sure Rodney hasn't blown up the labs." When he started to protest, she glared at him. "There's nothing you can do right now," she pointed out. He glared at her for a moment, then realized the truth in her statement. It didn't make him feel any better though. He stalked out of the control room and she breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Do you think you have a chance of finding the major soon?" she asked.

Aiden's voice sounded strained. "I'm working as fast as I can, Dr. Weir. Lorne had his pack with him when he disappeared so we're sure he had food and at least some water. The stones are an instruction manual and what McFadden triggered was a security feature to protect the scientists working here. Lorne's stuck, but he's not in any danger if we can get to him soon."

Elizabeth nodded. "Keep working then and if you get the shield down, let us know and we'll send help."

"Wall and Murray just got back. We're going to start digging the stone out. I don't think its buried that deep, but I can't be sure."

Elizabeth wanted to keep the younger linguist talking; to find out everything she had learned and find out how the team was holding up, but knew that every minute they kept the radio link open was a minute Aiden wasn't working on freeing Lorne. "Good luck. Atlantis out."

She turned and motioned for Chuck to close the wormhole, then stood looking at the silent 'gate for a few minutes before turning and heading back to her office. Hopefully the team would call soon with the news that all of them would return safely. Until then, she had a city to run.

* * *

Aiden clicked off her radio with Dr. Weir's last words echoing in her ears. Deke rested his hand on her shoulder as the Marines dropped the entrenching tools by the stone. "We'll find him," he reassured her. 

She brushed a lock of hair away from her face that had worked itself loose from her braid and gave him a brave smile. "I know. I suppose you aren't going to let me dig?"

Deke shook his head. "Nope. Take a look at the other stones and see if anything else will help us while we men do the heavy lifting."

"Geez, I thought I left male chauvinism behind when I left my brothers on Earth," Aiden grumbled as she retrieved her camera from where McFadden had set it and wandered off to look at the other stones.

"Stay in sight," Deke yelled after her.

Aiden waved over her shoulder as she crouched next to one of the other stones. Absentmindedly, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a Power Bar as she began to translate what was in front of her. She munched on the bar as she read over what was on the stone, then pushed herself to her feet and made her way back over to her pack. She tucked the wrapper into one of the pockets, then pulled out a notebook and pen. Stepping carefully around the hole the men had started, she made her way back over to the stone she had been studying. She checked the camera that McFadden had handed to her when he started digging and was happy to see that the stone was already saved in the memory, so she sat down in front of it and began to copy the writing. She made two rows of writing; one the Ancient that she copied off the stone and the second a translation of that writing into English. She quickly became fascinated by the description of phase technology. Even if she didn't understand the science, she knew it was something the scientists back on Atlantis would find exhilarating.

She was about two-thirds of the way through the translation when Deke called to her, "Doc, we've almost got it!"

Aiden finished the line she was on, then turned to see that the Marines had rigged up some kind of rope and pulley system. Wall, as the smallest of the men, was down in the hole they had dug, running a rope underneath the stone. He tossed the rope up to McFadden, who tied it off, then accepted a hand up from Murray. Aiden rejoined the men as they finished tying off the last of the ropes and McFadden began to check it over. "Is that going to hold?" she asked Deke.

Deke shrugged. "You're asking the wrong guy, Doc. I never attended engineering school."

"It'll hold," McFadden reassured them. He stepped back and nodded to the two sergeants. They grabbed the ropes he indicated and began pulling; hauling the stone out of the dirt it had rested in for ten thousand years. Much more quickly than Aiden expected, the stone was off the ground and Deke and McFadden stepped forward to guide it around so it would land right side up when Wall and Murray let it down.

As soon as the stone touched down on the ground again, Aiden practically shoved the larger men aside in her haste to get to the stone. Frantically, she ran a hand across the stone, dislodging dirt and sediment from it. When McFadden reached out to help her, she slapped his hand away. "No touching until we're sure you won't set something off! And, Deke, you don't touch either."

"Yes, ma'am," Deke drawled, but Aiden missed the sarcasm because she was too busy trying to get the dirt off the stone. "The terrible two can help you clean off the stone."

"I'd rather they didn't," Aiden said as she kept working.

Deke reached out and picked her up, moving her away from the stone, breaking her concentration. "Let the terrible two clean off the stone," he instructed, indicating the two Marines who immediately donned work gloves at his nod and began to carefully brush the dirt off the stone. "They'll work faster and they work really well together. Just give them a few minutes and it'll be clean."

Aiden struggled for a few moments, but she was well used to being smaller than most people and knew she wasn't going to be able to get away from him. "All right," she finally said as she watched the way the two Marines worked. "I see they're doing a good job. You can let me go."

Deke looked down at her. "You're not going to hit me or anything, are you?"

She glared back up at him. "No, I'm going to hit you. But don't ever again pick me up unless my life is in mortal peril. Just because I'm little doesn't mean I can be picked up and moved on a whim."

Deke grinned, his teeth flashing white in his dark face. "All right, little lady."

Aiden slapped at him as he let her go, but didn't connect. "iHún dàn/i," she replied, but there was no real heat behind it.

As soon as the boys stepped back, Aiden once again moved up to the stone. She ran her hand across the stone, brushing off the last of the dirt. With the dirt gone, she was able to clearly make out the writing and she was happy to see that for whatever reason, this stone was not in the code that the other one was in. Within moments, she was reading the words across the stone. She knelt down to read what was written across the bottom, then tipped her head back and looked up at the rest of the men, who were watching her with varying degrees of impatience. "I've got him. I know where he is," she announced.


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's Note: So wow, you got another chapter tonight. Sorry, it's so short, but I've got another part I need to fill in before you get more._

_Once again, Aiden and the boys (Deke, McFadden, and the twins) belong to me...Lorne and the other recognizable Atlantis characters belong to MGM and Scifi (and the great minds of the writers and producers who's names escape me at the moment)._

_None of the songs I refer to belong to me either, but many of them have brought great enjoyment to me and to my friends. Special thanks to my friends at especially Sesheta, Seisa, Brian, Amy, and anyone else who gave me song titles._

* * *

Lorne pulled his iPod out of his pack after he finished his breakfast. He had spent most of the day before sketching different scenes of Atlantis and home from memory and then drawing the room he was trapped in. He didn't feel like using anymore of the pad today though. He had carefully tucked the pad back into his pack before he went to bed so that it was protected.

Today he had decided he would spend sometime exercising before playing solitaire with the deck of cards that he carried in his pack. He turned the iPod on and began to scroll through the songs, stifling his laughter as he realized Deke had apparently customized the music again. There were four playlists on his menu each one labeled with a name; Deke, McFadden, the twins, and finally Lorne. He selected the one with his name and was pleased to discover that Deke had loaded that playlist with the most frequently played songs on his iPod. He scrolled through them discovering all of the ones he liked to listen to when he was working out or just needed to blow off some stress. He hooked up the small speakers that he had stuffed into his pack at the last moment and put the music on shuffle; the opening strains of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on Prayer" filled the room.

As he pushed his body through his work-out routine, he set his movements to the music on the iPod. The changing music helped keep him moving as the iPod shuffled through the music moving from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" to "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues and then changing it up to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" before switching to "Who Are You?" by The Who followed by Big & Rich's "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" which then segued into "We Will Rock You" by Queen.

He took a breather and drank some of his limited water supply, measuring his pulse at the same time, as Duran, Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf" played, then to the floor and did push-ups through the Eagles's "Get Over It" and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild". As "Roll with the Changes" by REO Speedwagon started, he began his cool down, but was startled by the next song which was "Mr. Roboto" by Styx. He grinned when he heard the song which he hadn't heard in years. It brought back amusing memories of pretending to be robots with some of his friends as the song played on the radio.

As Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" began to play, he picked up one of the t-shirts he had been wearing and wiped the sweat from his face. He listened to the last two songs on the playlist, David Bowie's "Let's Dance" and "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, before switching his iPod over to all play. Sitting down at the table, he shuffled his deck of cards and began to lay out a solitaire hand. His radio sat next to him on the table. He had turned it on when he got up, but hadn't tried to raise the team. He would try to reach them after he ate lunch.

* * *

"Where is he?" Wall demanded.

"Slow down," Deke ordered. "We need to report back to Atlantis, figure out what direction we're going, and where exactly the major is. Does it say how far, Doc?"

Aiden pushed herself to her feet, brushing dirt off her pants. "Its got very precise directions," she confirmed.

"Is the major okay for now?" Deke continued.

She nodded. "He's safe where he is. Provided he still has enough food and water."

McFadden picked up the camera from where Aiden had dropped it when she began looking at the stone. "Take pictures of this stone and finish up with the rest of the standing stones if you have time," he instructed. "Once we free the major, we're going to book back to the 'gate and hopefully get back to Atlantis."

Aiden nodded and accepted the camera, preparing to follow his directions. "We don't know if the major has enough food and water," she started.

"Lorne might be Air Force, but he's not an idiot," McFadden explained. "He'll know we're trying to find him and that we're doing our damnedest to get to him. He'll ration whatever he's got with him to hold out for as long as he's able. Our job is to get to him as soon as possible and get him out." He turned to the other Marines. "Break camp. Quick and dirty. We'll move out as soon as she's done."

"Which direction are we heading, Aiden?" Deke asked. "Towards the 'gate or away from it?"

"Towards it at first, then veering off before we get there," she replied as she continued snapping pictures.

Deke nodded. "Then you and Wall break off when we veer and report to Atlantis," he instructed McFadden. "That'll save us a little time."

McFadden nodded. "I'll go help the boys break camp. You'll watch her?"

"I've got her. If she causes any problems, I'll just pick her up again," Deke replied, but there was no response from Aiden. Deke spun around to see she had wandered off to take pictures of the McFadden hadn't gotten to yet. He watched her for a few minutes, but she was working steadily. She had surprised him. Her protest had not been because they were leaving the site of something that obviously fascinated her, but that they were delaying getting to Lorne. Most of the scientists would be more concerned with being dragged away from the discovery; Deke was glad that Aiden's concern was with Lorne. It boded well for her future inclusion on missions.

He dug a second camera out one of the packs that had been left on the ground and crossed the clearing to join Aiden. "Which stones still need to be photographed?" he asked.

Aiden pointed to her right. "The five stones next to this one. I'd like to get them all before we leave if its possible. I'm thinking Doctor Weir isn't going to be too eager to send a team back."

Deke nodded. "I'll start with the other end of the ones that need to be photographed then. Between the two of us, we should get all of them done." His long strides took him quickly across the clearing. He wasn't going to delay the team to let Aiden get the rest of her pictures, but he saw no reason not to help her. With the two of them working together, they might even get all of the stones photographed before the Marines returned.


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's Note: WooHoo! In celebration of getting the see Lorne last night (even if I had to stay up until 12:45 to do it!) I decided to give all of you another chapter. Do y'all know how hard it is to write Lorne stuck in a room by himself? I'm bored--I feel so sorry for him! So I took a couple liberties here since we don't have much background on our darlin' major._

_And for those of you who don't know...this story was supposed to be five pages or thereabouts. Its now reached 67 pages on Kword (Linux's version of Microword) and isn't finished quite yet. My cousin and I have nicknamed it the "energizer bunny"._

_Warnings? Um, Aiden's mouth? I can't think of anything else. I'll add them if need be. Nope she doesn't swear in this chapter.  
_

_Disclaimer: Lorne, Weir, and Chuck don't belong to me. Pretty sure everyone else does. And no spoilers._

* * *

After cleaning up from lunch, Lorne picked up his radio and turned it back on. He had turned it off earlier to conserve the battery, but now he wanted to try the team again. He switched over to the team's channel and spoke, "McFadden? Deke? If either you can hear me, an answer would be nice." He waited, setting the radio down, but leaving it on for the moment. When no response was forthcoming, he finally shut the radio back off. "I sure hope you guys are looking for me," he muttered.

He started to lay out another solitaire hand, but sighed as he pulled up all low number cards for the face ups. He never had been very good at solitaire or other games that involved cards. He never joined in on the base poker games because he tended to lose his shirt, not that he didn't have poker face, but he could never seem to get the cards he needed to win. With a sound of annoyance, he swept the cards into a pile, stacked them together and stuffed them back into the box. He pulled out his sketch pad and flipped through the completed drawings, but couldn't seem to settle on any of them. With a sigh, he stuffed the pad back into his pack.

Getting up, he prowled the room for a little while, trying to settle himself. He knew he couldn't get of the room; he knew he was stuck until the team found him. Unfortunately it looked like he wouldn't be getting out of the room anytime soon. Finally he stopped pacing and sat back down at the table, pulling a note pad out of his pack. He rifled through until he found a clean sheet of paper. Picking up his pen, dated it and wrote, _Dear Mom,_.

An hour later, he scrawled his name on the bottom of her letter; just like he had on so many paintings growing up. Carefully folding it, he placed it to the side before picking up another blank sheet of paper. This time he wrote, _Dear Dad_. This letter didn't take Lorne nearly as long to write. His father would understand better than his mother. He might not understand why Lorne had made the military his career, but he understood serving his country because he served in Vietnam after being drafted into the army. He finished it within thirty minutes and scrawled his name the bottom before folding it and setting it on top of his mother's.

Another sheet of paper which he quickly dated and then carefully wrote _Dear Kaitlyn_. Then he sat there staring at the blank sheet of paper. He had no idea where to start or what to say to her. There were so many things he needed to tell her, so many things he needed to fix. He hadn't meant to make all the mistake he'd made, but they'd both been kids and then it had been too late. He'd been gone, first to basic and then overseas and finally into the Stargate program where there were just too many secrets for him to be able to repair the damage he'd done. Now it might be too late for him to ever make things right.

When he finally finished, more than just words decorated the pages, but he felt certain that she wouldn't blame herself for the breech between them. He glanced at his watch and forced himself to eat another one of his sections of the rationed food, before laying down for a nap.

* * *

Deke and Aiden were working in tandem to photograph the last stone when the Marines returned. Aiden was on her knees; taking pictures of the lower half of the stone, while Deke concentrated on the upper half. The Marines dropped the packs out of the way and looked at the two civilians. "You about done?" McFadden asked.

Deke kept taking pictures as he answered, "We've just got this one stone left and we're just about finished." He stepped back to allow Aiden to stand up and cover the mid-part of the stone. When she lowered the camera and shut it off, he nodded. "That's it."

McFadden motioned to the packs. "Load up and let's move out. Quick as we can. Doctor Bancroft, if you have our heading, you take point."

Aiden picked up her own pack while the Marines and Deke divided up what was left so that no one was over-burdened. She pulled a small palm pilot out of her pocket, turned it on, looked at the screen, then pointed towards the far end of the stones. "We need to head that way. Toward the 'gate."

Deke reached out and grasped her shoulders, gently turning her around. "The 'gate's that way, Doc," he said, pointing in the opposite direction she had been facing.

She shrugged, unperturbed that she had been facing the wrong direction. "Okay. Let's head that way then."

McFadden just looked at her. "On second thought, Wall, you take point. Doc, right behind him and make sure we veer at the right moment." He fell in step with Deke as the group started moving. "Are you sure we can trust her directions?" he asked the civilian in a low voice.

Deke nodded. "I think if someone keeps an eye on her we'll be fine. When you and Wall break off to go to the 'gate, I'll watch her."

"And make sure that Murray doesn't run amok?" McFadden checked.

Deke shrugged, although it was only a small gesture with the heavy pack on his back. "Murray's not that difficult. And I don't think we'll be moving that fast without you two."

"I suppose you won't," McFadden agreed. "We'll make sure to report as quickly as possible and rejoin you as soon as we can. Make sure to plant the radio relays on your way to the new site."

"We will." Deke pulled his own palm pilot out of his pocket. "I'm going to copy Doc's directions over for you so you can find us easier."

McFadden nodded and watched as Deke used his longer legs to catch up to the shorter civilian.

* * *

Chuck glanced at the address of the incoming wormhole and quickly radioed Doctor Weir in her office. "Doctor Weir, it's Major Lorne's team reporting in," he informed her. "Do you want to talk to them?"

"Absolutely," she replied. "Tell whomever is there, I'll be right out." It took her only a moment to cross the distance from her office to the main control of the 'gate room. "Who is it?" she asked.

"Gunnery Sergeant McFadden and Sergeant Wall, ma'am," Chuck answered, having ascertained from the transmission who was reporting in.

"Gunnery Sergeant, what's your situation?" Doctor Weir questioned.

"Doctor Bancroft succeeded in breaking the code and finding the location of the bunker where Major Lorne is being held. Deke, Murray, and the doc are already on their way there. We'll be joining them as soon as we've reported in."

"Have you made contact with the major yet?"

"No, ma'am. Deke plans to tweak a radio once he gets to the site and we're hoping that will be enough to reach him," McFadden replied.

"Good," Doctor Weir congratulated them. "Good luck on your retrieval. Call us when you return to the 'gate."

"We will, ma'am."

"Get going then. We'll be expecting a report within four days."

"I suspect that it won't take us that long," McFadden replied. "It better not anyway. The major doesn't have that much time left."

Doctor Weir nodded. "I understand, Gunnery Sergeant. Get going now."

"Yes, ma'am. McFadden out."

Doctor Weir waited until the wormhole closed before returning to her office. Someone would inform her when the team reported back in again. Until then, there was the weekly data burst to finish and the never ending paperwork that required her attention, her initials, or her signature.

* * *

McFadden and Wall dropped their packs with the others when they reached the group. Aiden was sitting on the ground with her laptop open, leaning back against her pack. Murray was seated next to her, a bar of C-4 in his hand, but McFadden was glad to see there was no detonator attached. He glared briefly at the younger Marine and watched as Wall scooped the C-4 out of his friend's hand and stuffed it back into a pack.

Deke had the components of a radio relay kit, a radio and a toolkit spread out on a drop cloth in front of him. He was in the process of tweaking the radio to increase the signal strength. "Any luck so far?" McFadden asked.

Deke held up a finger that wasn't involved in the fine-tuning he was doing. A moment later he picked up the screwdriver and the casing of the radio and with a few deft movements reattached it. He tossed the radio to the gunnery sergeant. "Try that," he instructed.

McFadden turned the radio on and lifted it to his mouth, calling, "Major Lorne, do you read?"

There was nothing for a moment and then when McFadden was about to repeat his call, they got a reply, "McFadden? Is that you? Its good to hear your voice, Gunny."

The entire group breathed a sigh of relief. McFadden's face broke out into a huge grin as he answered, "Yes, sir, it is. Its good to hear your voice, too. We're right above you, sir, and we're gonna work on getting you out."

None of them could miss the relief in his voice as Lorne replied, "The sooner the better, Marine. The sooner the better."

"Its going take us a little bit of time, sir," McFadden replied as the other Marines began to set up the camp. "How are you doing for supplies?"

"Depends on how long your little bit of time is. I can make my food stretch for another day or so, but I'm almost out of water," Lorne replied.

Deke had been taking readings as the two military men talked, now he held his hand out for the radio. McFadden handed it over. "Lorne, it shouldn't take us more than a day to tunnel down and set the charges. Can you hold out that long?"

"I think so. I've got enough water for tonight and possibly tomorrow morning. I've been rationing it."

"Okay," Deke replied. "We're going to start digging now, but we won't break through until tomorrow. Once McFadden gets everything paced off and we start digging, we'll have Doc let you know. If she doesn't have problem with it, she can talk to you while we dig."

"Get to work then," Lorne ordered. "I'll be here. Its not like I'm going anywhere."

Deke clicked the radio off and tossed it to Aiden. The linguist set it in her lap and watched as the rest of the camp was quickly assembled. Now that the men had a goal and a plan, they moved quickly and with little discussion. All of them seemed to know what they needed to do and they fell quickly to work. Aiden dug her laptop out of her pack, figuring her best bet would be to stay out of the way. She hooked her camera up and began to download pictures as McFadden staked out the area where they would be digging.


	11. Chapter 11

_Author's Note: Wow! Another chapter...and yet I barely got anything written this weekend. Aren't I a nice person?? Well, nothing else to really report...just standard disclaimer...Lorne doesn't belong to me...everyone one else does. What Aiden's brothers taught her as defense doesn't belong to me anyway or well at least the saying doesn't belong to me, but I think every female knows it so it's probably common knowledge. (And I know that made no sense--it will once you read the chapter!)  
_

_Warnings--Aiden's mouth. I think someone needs to wash her mouth out and Lorne was worried about the Marines!_

* * *

Within forty-five minutes, Aiden was settling herself on the slight slope where she would be out of the way of the earth moving operation. As the four men stripped off their jackets and began to dig in the area McFadden had paced out, Aiden clicked on her radio, "Hello, Major. How are you doing down there?"

"I'm here," he answered back. "Have they started yet?"

"They've gotten underway," she dutifully reported. "Ya know under other circumstances I might be enjoying this."

"Enjoying what?" he asked.

"I'm part anthropologist. I'm an observer by nature. And what red-blooded American girl wouldn't like looking at four good-looking guys working hard?" She paused as first Murray and then Wall stripped off their t-shirts. "Especially when they go shirtless." She watched the two young Marines for a few minutes, comparing them. "Has Carson ever run DNA on those two? I mean are you sure they aren't identical twins separated at birth?"

There was a choking sound the other end of the radio. "I've never really looked that closely at my men," he answered finally.

Aiden shaded her eyes to better. "Am I bothering you, Major?"

"No. It was just an interesting conversation jump."

Aiden shrugged even though he couldn't see her. "I could say it's a nice view or something of that nature, but I figured one; that was stepping over that military line of things you didn't need to know and two; you're too straight for a comment like that not to make you uncomfortable."

There was silence for so long that Aiden thought they had lost the connection. Finally Lorne's voice came through, "When you agree to join the military as a civilian do they remove a filter between your brain and your mouth or am I just lucky to get the civilians that never had it in the first place?"

Aiden giggled. "I think you're just lucky that way."

"Oh, joy," he answered.

"So how big is your room?" she asked to change the subject. "Or I can stop talking if you'd prefer."

"No." Noises carried over the radio as he moved around. "Don't go. It's...it's nice to hear another voice."

"I would imagine it was starting to get a little weird in there and you were beginning to wonder if you were going nug bucking futs."

"What?" he sputtered.

"Sorry. Bug fucking nuts," she translated.

"Okay," he said and Aiden could hear the laughter in his voice and imagine him pointing a finger at her. "No more hanging out with Deke."

"Oh, no. I learned that one long before I started hanging out with military boys full time."

"Deke's not military."

"My point exactly. So how big is your room?"

"Ah twenty-five feet by forty feet."

"Hey that's pretty big!" she exclaimed. "Bigger than the ten by ten room I got locked in with Sir Doctor Carlisle Smythe Worthington the third."

"Sir Doctor?" he questioned.

"Yes." Aiden settled herself more comfortably since she would be talking to Lorne for a while. The boys had made progress, but it was slow going. "He had been knighted by the Queen for something, I can't remember what now, and he insisted we call him Sir Doctor. Personally it just made me think of Doctor Who all the time."

Lorne laughed. His science fiction frame of reference had improved since he got to Atlantis and he could see Aiden's point. "So what happened?"

"With getting locked in?"

"Yes. There's got to be a story there."

"The getting locked in part, not so much. Pretty typical actually. I was translating the hieroglyphics in the inner room, Sir Doctor came in to look at the room and he touched something. The door slid shut. On the plus side, about fifteen people saw the door slide shut so they immediately set to work on getting us out. On the negative side, Sir Doctor thought it was the _perfect_ opportunity to get to know me better."

"He propositioned you?" Lorne asked and there was a tone in his voice that Aiden hadn't heard before.

"Ah. No," Aiden replied. "How do I want to say this?" She was beginning to think that maybe she shouldn't have started telling him this story, because his reaction was beginning to sound like the ones her brothers had when she told them once she got home. "He's a hands-on archaeologist. Luckily about the time I hit puberty, my brothers taught me to sing."

"I'm assuming that means something other than singing a song to him?"

Aiden smiled as she recalled her reaction the first time her brothers had told her to remember to sing. "It's a mnemonic, Major." Closing her eyes, she imagined the movements as she chanted, "Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin."

Lorne laughed. "If you hit him in all four of those, I'm impressed he was still speaking to you when you got out of the room."

"He wasn't. He also tried to have me removed from the project for assault, but I countered with sexual harassment. They were still trying to get everything sorted out when I got a call from Daniel about Air Force."

"And you jumped at the chance to work for the military?"

She stood up to gage how far the team had gotten. "I wouldn't say jumped at the chance. I had been freelance translating; taking jobs as they came. Part of the appeal of this one was the permanency."

"I can see that," he agreed.

"Of course, no one told me I could end up permanently dead until after I had signed the contract."

"I guess being in the military that isn't really a consideration. We already know that's part of the job."

Aiden wrapped her free arm around her knees and made sure she had a tight grip on the radio. "Its not like I didn't know it was part of military life. Dad was in the army the entire time I was growing up. He served overseas, even if not really in a war zone. And Eddie and Sean are both in the military. I guess I just didn't realize that it might be part of being a civilian who works for the military."

Lorne sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, most civilians don't walk into the danger we do."

"I never went off-world," she admitted.

"What?" he asked, surprised by her statement.

"I worked for the SGC for a year, actually over a year, translating for Daniel and learning Ancient, but I never went off-world."

"How did you end up on Atlantis?" The tone in his voice was incredulous.

"I have an eidetic memory, Major. Its handy for my job, makes it easier to learn languages, but it also makes me the ideal person to translate things the teams bring back. Plus be able to identify if what the teams brought back was actually writing or just gobbledygook. So Daniel never saw any reason to send me off-world. Then word came down that they found the Atlantis expedition and they asked for volunteers from the civilians. I'm fluent in Ancient, can actually read it as if it was English, so I asked Daniel to transfer me. It took me a while to convince him, mostly because he wanted to go and he was arguing with Jack, but finally he signed off on it."

"And yet you had never been off-world. Talk about taking the big plunge."

"The worst part was not being able to tell my brothers and parents where I was going."

"I can understand that. Its hard not being able to tell the people you love what you're doing."

Aiden grinned as she watched Deke straighten up and toss his shovel out of the sizable hole the men had made. "Especially when its as cool as this."

"This mission," Lorne grumbled, "is not going down in the cool column."

Aiden kept her eyes on Deke as he hauled himself out of the hole and began to saunter over to where she sat. "I can understand that," she told Lorne. "Deke's headed my way. I would say you're about to get an update."

"Any idea how far they've gotten?" Lorne asked.

Aiden snorted. "They've dug a big hole, Major, that's about all I can tell you."

Deke had reached her by now and he held his hand out for the radio. Aiden turned it over to him. "Lorne, we've gotten down deep enough that we can start tunneling to your position. Unfortunately its going to be dark in another hour or so. We can't see to dig once the sun goes down."

"Deke, you're tunneling under ground, why would you need the sun?" Lorne asked sharply in reply.

"I'm not the engineer, boss. McFadden says we stop digging, we're stopping. We'll pick up again at first light."

Even though Aiden wasn't the one with the radio, she could hear the tiredness in Lorne's voice, "All right, Deke. Sorry. I'm just getting claustrophobic."

"I understand. We're working as fast as we can."

"Understood. All of you get some food and some sleep."

"We will." Deke tossed the radio back to Aiden and then strode away to join the Marines who were folding the shovels up for the night.

Aiden clicked the radio back on. "Are you okay for the night, Major?" she asked.

"I'm going to have to be, Doc," he replied. "You need to go join the others."

Aiden stood up, brushing off her backside and stretching a bit. "How much water do you have left?" she asked seriously.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "I'll be fine."

"Lorne, how much water do you have?" she repeated. "Don't brush it off. Are you going to be all right until we get you out?"

"I have a little less than two liters left. If the boys break me out tomorrow, I should be fine."

Aiden nodded to herself. "All right, thank you for answering me. Get some sleep, Major. I'll talk to you at first light."

"Good night, Aiden," he told her.

"Good night, Evan," she replied and clicked off the radio before he could say anything else. She clipped the radio to her vest and quickly made her way over to where the boys had set up camp. She accepted the MRE that Wall handed to her as she joined them and sank down to the ground. "You guys really need to dig as fast as you can tomorrow," she announced before taking a bite of her food. She looked down at the tray she held. "What the hell is this?"

"Its an omelet," Wall answered.

Aiden set it on the ground and shoved it away. "Well, its disgusting."

Murray held up his tray. "Wanna trade?" he offered. "I have jambalaya. I don't mind eating the omelet. If you add enough Tabasco, its not too bad."

Aiden reached for his meal. "Anything's gotta be better than that." She watched as the Marine dumped Tabasco sauce on the MRE she had handed him and proceeded to dig into it. Shuddering, she turned her attention to her meal and to Deke and McFadden. "The major told me how much water he has left. We need to get him out tomorrow."

"Its not like we want to leave him in there," Deke snapped at her.

"Easy, Deke," McFadden warned. "She's not accusing anyone of anything. Doc, we're working as fast as we can."

Aiden looked the older Marine in the eye. "He's got less than two liters of water left, Gunny. We need to either get him out or get him some water."

McFadden nodded, accepting her assessment of the situation. "He's been in tough places before. We should get the tunnel dug out tomorrow though. Then Murray can go in and blow a hole in the wall. Few minutes after that we'll have the major out."

"And then Murray goes in and rigs the charges and blows that bunker to hell and back," Deke added.

Aiden's brown eyes widened. "What if there's something in there that we need? Information that will take the shield down or help us in the fight against the Wraith?"

Deke tossed his tea on the fire, putting it out slightly. "Tell Lorne to look around tomorrow while we're digging. If there's something there, we'll give you one hour to go in and record it, but that bunker will be destroyed before we leave."

Aiden nodded as he got to his feet and went to his tent. She watched as the three Marines divided up the watches that were left. She knew from the past few nights that Deke always took the last watch and that she wouldn't be allowed to stand a watch. She tided up her food tray, packing it away with their other trash and retired to the tent that had been set up for her. She didn't expect to fall asleep quickly, but was surprised to find her eyes quickly closing and blackness overtaking her.

* * *

_Author's note: Isn't Aiden cruel to screw with Lorne's head? There's more to this conversation or well, there's another day of her talking to him, but you'll have to wait another day for that._

_Bonus points to anyone who caught both my scifi reference and my Miss Congeniality reference!  
_


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Note: Look more Aiden and Lorne chatting! Other than that, yeah I don't think I have anything to say. Lorne still doesn't belong to me (pouts), but everyone else does. Warnings: Still Aiden's mouth and probably the boys too, but honestly I can't remember. So how many of you caught the Dr. Who reference last chapter? Cuz only one person emailed me about it. Thanks, USDA-Certified Organic__ for the title of the exact episode I referenced "Tooth and Claw"._

_Oh, and the omelet was special for USDA-Certified Organic last chapter. :-D (They really are disgusting--but honestly, aren't all MREs?)

* * *

_The aroma of coffee woke Aiden in the morning and she quickly changed her shirt, then pulled on her jacket against the cool of the morning. Deke was hunched over by the fire, aimlessly stirring a cup of coffee. Aiden poured herself a cup from the pot on the fire and settled down next to him. "You okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Deke grunted. He started to get to his feet.

"Deke, we're gonna get him out. I have faith in you guys," Aiden told him.

Deke looked down at her. She looked so tiny huddled on the ground next to the fire when he was standing. "Keep that faith, Aiden," he told her. "We're going to need it. We start digging again in fifteen minutes."

Aiden nodded, grabbing a Power Bar and tucking it in her pocket. "Where's the radio?" she asked.

Deke picked it up from where it rested on one of the packs and tossed it at her. "He might not be awake yet," he cautioned.

Aiden shrugged as she shoved another Power Bar into her pocket. "So I wait until he answers. Its not like I have anything else to do." She waited until Deke had rounded up the three Marines, then as they made their way to the hole they had dug yesterday, she climbed the slope she had sat on yesterday and settled down again. She pulled one of the Power Bars out of her pocket and grimaced when she saw it was peanut butter, but unwrapped it anyway and started eating. After a moment, she clicked the radio on and said, "Morning, Major. You awake yet?"

It took a few minutes for him to answer, so long that she was about to set the radio down and try again later. "Morning, Aiden. I was Evan last night," he pointed out.

Aiden registered that he sounded tired this morning, worn out, and she hoped he was laying down and resting. She winced at the reminder that she had called him Evan. "Sorry about that," she told him. "I didn't mean to take liberties."

"Nah, its okay. I don't mind. It sounded nice."

"Are you all right?" she asked, concerned because he didn't sound like himself.

"Just tired," he answered.

"Are you laying down? Did you eat anything this morning? McFadden assures me that they'll get you out today."

"Yes and yes," he answered. "That's good. So what's our topic for today?"

"Well, I can't see the boys so you don't have to worry about me making comments that will offend your straightness. Why don't you ask me questions and I'll try to answer them?"

"Okay." He inhaled, so loudly that Aiden could hear it over the radio. "You said you have brothers? Why don't you tell me about them?"

Aiden grinned in response. "Oh yes, I have brothers. Five of them to be exact. All older than me. So yes I was the pampered little girl and favored daughter, which was both good and bad. The oldest of my brothers is Patrick, never Paddy or Pat, but always Patrick. He's doctor of math at the University of New Hampshire and married to Gabriella. Patrick is a stuck up pain in my tuchas, but a pretty decent brother even if he is a bit stiff. Then next is Eddie who is a recon Marine. When I left, he was on his way to Iraq for his second tour. After Eddie comes the actual twins, Sean and Ian. Sean's the elder by about forty minutes and is in the Air Force. He's a pilot. I'm not sure where he is right now; I would assume overseas somewhere since his last letter didn't give an exact location. Ian is a doctor of history at the University of Chicago. He has a girlfriend or he did before I left. Hopefully they've broken up. My last brother is Daren and he's my Irish twin; only ten months older than me. Daren's the only one of us who's a doctor doctor. He's an ER doctor at a hospital in New York City."

"I'm surprised you took this job with the amount of family you have."

"I think partly I took it to get away from my family. Do you have a big family?"

"No. Not really. Not as big as yours away. It was just my parents and me for quite a while and then eventually my mom had another child. I was ten when my sister was born though so I can't say I spared her much thought." Lorne sighed. "I'm not even sure where she is and I can't say I've had much contact with my parents since I joined the Air Force. I miss it sometimes. Mom and I had a lot of fun painting on weekends when I was a kid, but since I joined up I haven't had much time to paint. I was hoping I'd get more time since coming to Atlantis, but it just hasn't happened yet."

"Patrick was ten when I was born. I would imagine I wasn't his most favorite person. Oh, wait, I'm still not. Siblings don't always get along. My problem was everyone kept on babying me. Even when I was overseas working, I'd get phone calls every other day, checking on me. Then if Sean or Eddie were stationed anywhere near-by and one of them got leave, they'd 'drop in' to visit me. Believe me it was highly annoying."

Lorne stifled a laugh at the offended tone in her voice. "I'm sure they were just trying to make sure you were all right."

"It wasn't too bad until the time one of them dropped in unannounced while I was sleeping. The problem wasn't the unannounced part, but that I wasn't sleeping alone or clothed."

Lorne had to chuckle at the picture that invoked. Aiden was concerned that his laugh was so weak though and she noted the time, hoping that the team was making good progress. "What was your brother's reaction?"

"Luckily it was Sean, not Eddie. He simply turned his back and remarked that the sight was 'more of his sister than he had _ever_ wanted to see'. He also told the guy to get dressed and get out. Then he sat me down and had a birds and bees talk with me." She laughed at the memory. "That was interesting. I love my brothers. I miss my brothers, but its nice not worrying about having one of them drop-in at an inconvenient moment."

"Which of your brothers are you closest to?" he asked.

"Daren definitely since we're so close in age. Then probably Sean. Ian to a lesser extent. Eddie and I get along although I wouldn't say we really share any big secrets and Patrick and I don't see eye to eye on much of anything."

"I need to ask you for a favor," Lorne started.

Aiden shrugged, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Sure, name it. As soon as we get you out I'll carry it out."

"Its more of if you don't get me out alive."

"Well, that's not going to happen so don't bother asking me."

"Aiden, I'd just rather ask this just in case."

She heaved a sigh, but spoke, "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"I wrote some letters in case I don't get out of this alive. Three of them. They're in my right vest pocket. One each for my mom, my dad, and Kaitlyn. I'd like you to make sure the letters get home to the right people. And please don't let the team see them, I'd rather they not know my faith in them wavered at all. They aren't sealed so you can read them first, although I made sure there's nothing classified in them."

Aiden wiped away the tears that formed in her eyes. "I understand, but it won't be necessary." She grinned and changed her tone to the teasing one she used when one of her brothers started talking about a new girl in their life. "Who's Kaitlyn? The girl you left behind?"

Lorne's chuckle was even weaker this time and Aiden stood up to see if she could tell how far the team had progressed. "No," he told her. "She's my little sister. I had some things I wanted to tell her. Some wrongs I wanted to correct."

Aiden smiled, settling back down on the hill. "You're a good big brother, Evan."

"Yeah, I hope she feels the same way."

Aiden could hear the weakness in his voice this time. "Hang in there, Evan. I think they're almost to the point where they can reach you."

"Just...tired," his words trailed off.

"Evan?" She waited for an answer and when none was forth-coming, she repeated, "Evan?" Another three heatbeats passed and she still got no answer, forcing her to scream into the radio, "_EV-AN_!" When she got no answer this time, she leaped to her feet, forgetting the radio that connected her to the team and yelled, "DEKE! MCFADDEN!"

Deke's black-haired head popped up from the hole, a frown on his face. "What?" he called.

She waved the radio at him, frantic. "Major Lorne's not responding!" she yelled across the distance between them.

"Shit!" A heave and Deke had pulled himself from the hole. He dashed across the space separating them and snatched the radio from Aiden's grasp. "Lorne," he demanded. "Lorne, respond if you can."

Both of them waited with bated breath for a response. After a few moments it was obvious there wasn't going to be one. Deke swore again and made as if to throw the radio, but Aiden grabbed it before he could. "We may need that," she pointed out to him. "How much longer?"

"Five, maybe ten minutes," he replied, staring down at the ground as if he could see the major below them.

"Then I suggest you get back to work. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Go back to camp and get us some food? While Murray sets the charges, the rest of us can eat."

Before Aiden could question what he meant by setting charges, Deke was loping back off to the hole. She shrugged away her questions, figuring she could ask them when the team came out, and went to fetch the MREs from camp. She took a few minutes to sort through them and try to find ones that looked the most appetizing. She bypassed anything that mentioned eggs remembering the disgusting taste from the night before and finally settled on five different chicken dishes. At least they would have choices for lunch and be able to swap if they didn't like what she handed them.

When she returned to the hole, all four of the men were out of it and were brushing off the dirt. Murray wasn't bothering, but had laid out his demolitions and was in the process of building something. Aiden handed around the meals, then watched as the three men promptly traded them. She rolled her eyes as she settled down on the ground and ripped hers open, popping the heating element. She watched with interest as Murray finished whatever he was doing and turned to McFadden. The Gunnery Sergeant nodded the go ahead.

Aiden looked at Deke as Murray lowered himself into the tunnel the men had dug and turned on his flashlight. "What is he going to do?" she asked.

Deke guided Aiden further away from hole as the other Marines gathered up their lunch and joined the two civilians. "He's going to set charges for a controlled explosion that will blow a hole in the wall of the bunker Lorne's in. Then we'll hack out the wall and get our major out."

"_Controlled explosion_?" she questioned. "Isn't that an oxymoron?!" She peered down the tunnel, even though it was too dark to see anything. "Is it _safe_?"

"We know where Lorne is in the room. Murray'll be very careful. This is his job, he's good at it," Deke reassured her.

"You know where he is? He's still on the life signs detector?" Aiden questioned.

Deke tipped the detector so she could see the screen, careful to keep a hand on it so it stayed active. When she looked at it blankly, he pointed to two dots. "That's Lorne and that's Murray."

Aiden studied the screen for a moment, then noticed the dot Deke had identified as Murray was moving. "What's he doing?"

"Coming out so he can set off the charges," McFadden answered as the younger man's head popped up out of the hole.

Murray hauled himself out of the hole, the switch clutched in one hand. He hurried over to the group and crouched down next to them. "Fire in the hole," he announced, ducking his head and pushing the button.

The others had just enough time to cover their ears before a muffled boom announced that the charges had exploded. They all turned to see dust billowing out of the hole. Aiden would have jumped up and ran for it if Deke hadn't grabbed her arm. "We have to wait for the dirt to settle," he explained. "And you're going to let McFadden and me go in first. Once we get Lorne out, McFadden will take you back in to take a quick look around while Murray rigs the charges so have your camera ready to go."

Aiden could barely contain herself as the two men lowered themselves into the hole. They took picks and shovels in case they had to widen the hole Murray had made and Deke dragged his med pack along with him. He would start an IV once they got to Lorne and decide the best way to move him. She couldn't decide which had her more on edge; that they were so close to finally freeing Lorne or the chance to see the room he had been trapped in. She hoped there would be more writing inside the room; writing that would help them solve the final mystery of how to get the shield down. She was sure that by-passing the security feature this way meant that the shield was still up and blocking the 'gate.

While she waited, Aiden switched her memory cards in her camera and made sure she had everything she would need when she got down there. She knew she wouldn't have much time and she was determined not to be the one to prevent Lorne from getting the medical help he needed. Obviously something was wrong since the major had stopped talking to her suddenly. She turned as there was noise from the tunnel.

The two men emerged from the tunnel, a blanket between them. They lay it carefully on the ground and Deke immediately began working on the still body of Major Lorne. "Get them down there and complete the job," Deke ordered as he worked frantically, but in complete control.

Aiden paused by Lorne as Murray grabbed what he needed from his pack, running a hand down his arm and checking for herself that he was still breathing. When Deke turned to grab something out of his med bag, she quickly reached into Lorne's vest pocket and withdrew the letters he had told her about. Standing up, she tucked them into her pants pocket and then made her way to the tunnel. Flicking on her flashlight, she began to crawl down the tunnel. Behind her, she could hear the panic as the men realized she had disappeared from sight, then someone discovered she had entered the tunnel.

* * *

_End Note: It really is possible to set off a controlled expolosion, also called controlled demolition, but I've always thought it sounded rather amusing. Its also not something Aiden would be expected to know anything about--so her panic is justified. The "Energizer Bunny" is still trucking along, I haven't gotten much writing done in the last few days, but I have hopes. My goal is October 31st, but I think I've set goals before and not made them._


	13. Chapter 13

_Author's Note: So I will warn you...the next few chapters have not been beta'd. I did spell check them, but that's about it. I'm pretty confident in my grammar skills (I better be since I teach them to kids), but if you notice anything a little off, feel free to send me an email. Oh, and just so you know...the "Energizer Bunny"'s batteries have died! I finished the story! I have it all uploaded here and as soon as I get it all edited, it will be on-line._

_Standard disclaimer still applies, I'm tired of repeating myself._

* * *

By the time McFadden and Murray joined her in the room, Aiden had already taken pictures of Lorne's belongings. She wanted to record what he had been doing just so they knew what to do if something else similar happened again. Moving quickly, she was stuffing his things back into the pack when the two Marines emerged from the tunnel. 

McFadden headed for her immediately, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the table. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

Aiden jerked her arm out of his grasp. "My job," she spat back. "Record and preserve. Now before Murray blows this place to hell and back, I'd like to make sure there isn't something here we can use." Spinning around, she stalked over to the console she had spied in the corner of the room.

Stepping up onto the platform, she groaned as she realized she couldn't access anything. "What's wrong?" McFadden called over to her.

"I need the bloody gene," she called back.

McFadden stifled a laugh at the frustration in her voice, then crossed the room to join her at the console; Lorne's pack slung over one shoulder. Reaching around her, he lay a hand on the panel and thought _on_. With a quiet beep the machine powered up. "Woot!" Aiden said triumphantly as she began to type frantically into what he assumed was a keyboard.

McFadden gave up trying to follow what she was typing since she was moving too fast for him and looked at her. "Woot?" he asked.

She shrugged, but didn't stop typing. "An expression of excitement. A friend used to use it constantly, guess it rubbed off." She grinned. "Got it!" She dug her camera out of her pocket and began taking pictures of the screen.

"Gunny, the charges are set," Murray called.

"Set the timer for forty-five minutes," McFadden ordered. "Wrap it up, Doc."

Aiden nodded and flipped screens faster, taking pictures as they changed. "Okay. Okay," she said as McFadden started to pull her off the platform. "One more second," she insisted.

"No. We've got to go now," McFadden replied. "We've got to get the major back to Atlantis."

"Yes. All right." Aiden allowed herself to be pulled off the platform this time as she shoved the camera back in her pocket. "Did you get all of Lorne's things?" she asked.

"Yes," McFadden replied. "Up the tunnel now. And tell Deke we're heading out as soon as Murray and I get out. I want to be well away before Murray's explosions go off."

Aiden nodded and quickly scurried up the tunnel, emerging into the sunlit day. Deke and Wall had moved Lorne onto a stretcher and hooked the IV up so it was hanging. Aiden shrugged on her pack as explained to Deke, "McFadden and Murray are right behind me. McFadden wants to bug out as soon as they get up here. Murray set the timer for forty-five minutes."

When the other two emerged from the tunnel, Wall and Murray took either end of the stretcher as Deke and McFadden took the heavier packs. Aiden took up a position on the side of Lorne's stretcher as McFadden took point. Deke fell in on the other side, keeping one eye on Lorne and the other on his life signs detector. McFadden set a brisk pace and when he saw Aiden was easily keeping up, he increased it slightly.

"Time," Murray called and the group halted, taking a knee on the ground. Murray and Wall set the stretcher down and braced it. A moment later, the ground shook slightly and the team rolled with the shock.

Deke took a moment to check Lorne, then they were up and moving again. "That was it?" Aiden asked.

"It's good that was all we felt," Wall assured her. "Means Murray did it right."

"I guess I was expecting a bigger boom," she confessed.

"If we had stayed at the site, it would have been," Wall assured her. "Haven't the other missions you've been on used demolitions?"

"Hey!" Murray blurted out. "I know how to set demolitions and I always do them right."

Wall threw a look over his shoulder at his friend. "Yeah and there's that delayed reaction I know so well. We weren't saying you didn't know how to set them, Murray. Just stay out of the conversation and hold up your end of the stretcher."

"I haven't been on any other missions," Aiden confessed.

All four men turned to at her, but none of them lost their stride. "You've never been off-world before?" McFadden asked.

Aiden shook her head. "Nope. I was a minion at the SGC and Daniel needed me to translate things more than he needed another person going off-world. Atlantis was the first time I had been off-world and this is my first mission."

"Well, hell," Deke said. "Why'd we get the newbie?"

"DEKE!" the three Marines yelled.

"What?" Deke sputtered back. "Think about it. We got the newbie and our major is unconscious and being hauled back to the 'gate on a stretcher."

"Which is not her fault," Wall pointed out. "She doesn't have the gene."

"We only have her word that its McFadden's fault. None of us can read the language," Deke retorted.

"She's the one who found the major," Wall replied. "If she had been trying to kill him, she wouldn't have led us right to him."

"We wouldn't be in this mess if she wasn't with us," Deke insisted.

McFadden turned so he was facing the rest of the group, although he kept walking. "No. We'd probably be in a worse mess. I never would have gotten that code cracked so quickly nor would I have figured out where Lorne was. You should be thanking the doc, not blaming her for something that was clearly my fault." He turned back around and stepped up the pace. "Now shut up and save your breath for walking."

It was a silent group that continued the walk to the 'gate; each of them lost in their thoughts. When they reached the 'gate, they stared in despair at the shield still surrounding it. Wall and Murray set the stretcher down near the DHD and Deke made sure the IV was stable before joining McFadden at the DHD. Aiden sat down beside Lorne and took his hand, murmuring softly to him.

"Now what do we do?" Wall asked.

"Dial Atlantis," McFadden ordered. "See if McKay has figured out a way to disrupt the shield yet."

Deke went around to the front of the DHD and began punching in the symbols that would connect them to Atlantis, carefully watching to be sure each one lit up before moving on to the next. A moment after he pressed the center button, the familiar sound of the ka-woosh filled the clearing.

"Atlantis," McFadden called over the radio, "we're at the 'gate with Major Lorne, but the shield's still up. Has Doctor McKay figured out how to take it down yet?"

"Ah, no. No. Nothing I've come up with has worked," McKay's voice came over all of their radios. "I mean it's essentially the same idea as the Atlantis shield so I don't think it would hurt any of you if you were to walk into it from that side, but you can't really walk through it to the 'gate and there's no help I can send you from this end because..."

"McKay!" Sheppard snapped.

"Sorry, but there's really nothing that worked from this end. You're going to have to disable it from that side of the 'gate," McKay finished.

"Any ideas as to how?" Deke asked.

"No. Not really. Not without actually seeing it. I mean if you disrupt the power source, you should be able to bring the shield down," McKay babbled.

Deke and McFadden looked at each other. There was no obvious power source for the shield other than the DHD that powered the 'gate. "We'll dial back when we've got an idea on what to do," McFadden informed Atlantis.

"Deke, how're the Major's vitals?" Beckett's soft brogue asked, breaking into the conversation.

"They're holding steady, Doc," Deke replied. "He's had about two bags and a quarter of fluid now. I pushed the first and second bag, put them in quickly in about thirty minutes each, but I'm letting the third one flow slower. He's stable, but still unconscious."

"Keep a close eye on him," Beckett advised. "He should be coming around with the third bag, but if he doesn't, give him a fourth."

"We don't have a fourth bag," Deke admitted. "I didn't pack more than three this trip."

They could clearly hear Beckett's sigh over the radio. "Well, its not like we were anticipating this little glitch. Keep me posted on how he's doing."

"We will," Deke said.

"Check in every two hours," Weir broke in to order. "At least keep us informed on your progress and let us know when the Major wakes up."

"Will do, ma'am," McFadden replied. He cut the radio signal, allowing Deke to close the 'gate. "Now what?"


	14. Chapter 14

_Author's Note: Woot! Another new chapter. Ooo, I'm spoiling y'all today. Oh, and Aiden's woot! I really did pick that up from my friend, Ashley, she really does say that and I really have started saying that because of her. It's amusing, but it does cause strange looks._

_Standard disclaimer still applies, I'm tired of repeating myself._

* * *

Deke pulled his detector out of the vest pocket he had stuffed it into when they reached the 'gate. "We go find that power source. I guess we'll have to split up because I don't want to move Lorne at this point. Why don't you take Wall and the doc to search?"

McFadden nodded. "Seems like as good a plan as any. You going to be okay with just Murray?"

"Nothing's attacked us on the ground yet," Deke pointed out, then indicated the 'gate, "and it's not like anything can come through at the moment."

"Good point," McFadden agreed. He reached behind himself and unlatched his backpack, letting it drop to the ground. Wall had already ditched his own pack and was stuffing extra clips in his vest pockets. "Hey, Doc," McFadden called. "We're going to go look for the power source for the shield. You're going with us."

Aiden looked up from where she was sitting next to Lorne. "Why?"

"In case we find Ancient that needs to be read. I want to make sure we know exactly what's going on."

She shook her head. "No, not why am I going. Why are we going? We can take the shield down from here."

Deke and Wall both turned to look at her. "What?" Deke demanded.

Aiden tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and formulated her reply. "On the console in the bunker were directions on how to take the shield down if it was still active after removing the scientists from the room."

"Okay, so how do we do it?" McFadden asked.

"We can't," she admitted. "Lorne has to do it."

"In case you haven't noticed," Deke said sarcastically, "Lorne's still unconscious. He's not exactly capable of activating anything at the moment."

Aiden waved her hand at the shield. "Blowing up the power source you found isn't going to do a damn thing. The shield's power source is inside it. We go blow that up," she shrugged, "we come back here, the shield will still be up."

Deke dropped onto the ground where he stood and the Marines followed suit. "Shit," McFadden said succinctly. "This is such a SNAFU."

Deke leaned over to check Lorne's vitals. "On the plus side, he's had enough fluids that he should be waking up soon. How much water he had with him will make a difference in how coherent he is." He turned to Aiden. "Do we just need him conscious or what?"

"He needs to be able to function pretty much. Not move around so much, but he needs to activate the console thingy and input the commands," Aiden replied.

"By voice, thought, or keyboard?" McFadden asked as Deke mouthed, "Console thingy?"

Aiden pulled out her camera and scrolled through the pictures, finally landing on the ones with the directions. She flipped between the shots for a few minutes, finally admitting, "I'm not sure. It's not really clear. I'm sorry."

Wall reached over and squeezed her shoulder as Murray grinned at her. "It's okay," the young Marine reassured her. "You've already saved us time."

"But next time you have information like that...share," Deke instructed.

Aiden nodded and started to say something, but was interrupted by a groan from Lorne. All of their attention turned to the Air Force major. Deke reached over and took his wrist, taking his pulse as Lorne groaned again and shifted. McFadden grabbed his shoulders. "Hold still, Major," he ordered. "Don't move til Deke gives the okay."

"Hey, Lorne." Deke leaned over him to give him something to orient on and to block the sunlight from his eyes. "I need you to open your eyes and look at me. And talk to me if you can."

Lorne groaned again. "Did anyone see the damn truck that hit me?" he asked, without opening his eyes.

Deke grinned and replied, "Nope," then continued to try to cajole him into doing what he needed, "I need you to open your eyes and tell me how many fingers I'm holding up."

Lorne cracked his eyes open far enough to give his medic the evil eye. "I did _not_ hit my head and I do _not_ have a concussion," he informed his medic.

"Hate to break it to you, boss, but you did hit it when you fainted," Deke corrected.

"I didn't faint," Lorne insisted.

"Fine, when you did your manly passing out from dehydration." Deke waved his hand at the other man, "Fingers."

Lorne glared. "Two fingers and a thumb. Can I sit up now?"

"Nope," Deke replied cheerfully. "Scale of one to ten, how's the pain in your head? And don't lie, we need you functioning."

"About a six. Maybe a little less. What's our situation?"

"Everyone's fine, sir," McFadden broke-in. "And no one's attacking us. There's just a shield around the 'gate."

"There's a what?" Lorne tried to sit up, but both McFadden and Deke pushed him back down. Wall and Murray shifted in place, ready to move in and assist if they were needed.

"I told you to lay still," Deke said with frustration. "Just relax. We'll get to the shield in a few minutes." He waited until Lorne settled back down on the stretcher, ignoring the black look the major was giving him. "You think you can swallow some aspirin?" he asked.

"Yeah. Probably," Lorne replied.

Deke nodded at McFadden. "McFadden's gonna get behind you and brace you. Let him help you sit up and tell me if you feel dizzy at all." He turned and looked around, then instructed, "Doc, get me a canteen and, Wall, hand me an aspirin packet."

Both hurried to do as ordered while Murray asked, "Is there anything I can do, Deke?"

"Just sit tight. When we get ready to move Lorne, we'll need you."

"I'm not a bale of hay," Lorne pointed out as he allowed McFadden to help him sit up.

"At least you know that," Deke replied. "Thanks, Doc." He accepted the canteen from Aiden and the packet from Wall. He passed the canteen to Lorne and ripped open the packet, passing the major the pills. "Swallow," he instructed.

Lorne glared, but did as ordered. He took another couple of drinks from the canteen, but handed it back when Deke held his hand out. "What shield?" Lorne asked.

"Short term memory's intact," McFadden quipped from behind him.

"At least enough to remember the shield," Aiden added.

Lorne glared at her since he couldn't see his Marine. "Not funny." He turned his attention to Deke. "Am I able to order a report now?"

"How's your head?" Deke asked in reply.

"Feels like someone's using it for band practice. I don't think that's going to change much until we get home to Beckett and the good drugs though," Lorne answered.

"Nausea? Dizziness? Lightheaded?" Deke rattled off the symptoms he was most concerned about and waited for Lorne to deny them.

"Nope. Nope. And nope. Mostly my head just feels like I've been on a bender for a few days," Lorne confirmed.

"I'd say no concussion than although Beckett'll want to check." Deke nodded at Aiden. "Go ahead and tell him."

"There's a shield like Atlantis's around the 'gate," Aiden started. When Lorne began to say something, she waved him to silence. "I said like, Evan, not exactly the same. This one activated when McFadden set off the security thingy."

Lorne had to grin at her phrasing. "Security thingy?" he repeated. "Is that a technical term?"

Aiden glared at him. "The security feature developed by the Ancestors to protect their highly evolved brains from getting sucked by the Wraith," she elaborated. She paused to look at him for a moment, then asked, "Better?"

Lorne had to laugh, as much as it hurt his head; although he wasn't sure if it was at her offended tone or her word choice. "Okay," he said. "I get it. McFadden touched something he shouldn't have. In simple terms now, explain the problem with the shield."

"Because you were the one to get trapped in the security feature, the shield has keyed itself to your DNA and your gene." When Lorne nodded, she continued, "So neither Deke nor McFadden can bring the shield down."

"What do I need to do?" Lorne asked, already beginning to regret asking her about the shield. Unfortunately it didn't sound like he could pass out again and wake up in Atlantis.

"There's a console underground approximately fifteen feet from the DHD. You should be able to tell it's there, raise it, and then it's simply a matter of getting the shield down by inputting the commands."

"Inputting how?" Lorne asked.

"I'm not sure," Aiden admitted, "but once you raise the console, I should be able to figure it out."

McFadden checked his watch. "We need to check in with Atlantis in twenty minutes," he announced.

"Then let me up and let's find this console," Lorne ordered. "If it's as easy as Aiden says, we can check in early and tell them we're coming home."

Deke nodded. "Murray, Wall, get the major up. Lorne, if you feel dizzy or anything tell me immediately."

The two identical Marines got on either side of their major and braced him. On the count of three, they hauled him to his feet. Lorne wavered for a few moments, but didn't fall. When he appeared steady on his feet, they let go and back away, but stayed within reach in case he started to tip. Aiden came forward when he motioned to her. "Any idea how to find this thing?" he asked.

Aiden shook head. "How do you normally find Ancient tech?"

Lorne indicated Deke's detector, which the other man had pulled out of his pocket again. "It shows up active on there and we go to it following the directions," he explained.

"This isn't really active at the moment," Aiden replied. "But it should be showing up on the detector somehow. It's in..." she wrinkled her forehead as she tried to figure out how to explain it to him "...you know how a computer goes to sleep when you aren't using it?" she asked. He nodded in response. "Okay. It's in sleep mode. You should be able to find it and wake it up. Then just tell it to," she shrugged, "tell it to wake up and rise."

Lorne sighed. "You say that like it's so easy."

Aiden laid her hand on his arm and looked up at him. "I know it's not easy, Evan, and I know I'm asking a lot of you, but I also know you can do this." She looked him eye, brown eyes locking with blue. "We're stuck here unless you can do this."

Lorne smiled tightly down at her. "Nothing like pressure, Aiden."

"Minor pressure, Evan," she replied, squeezing his arm. "You _can_ do it."


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's Note: Sorry this one is so short, but well...giggles. I love the end of this and I always thought it would make a perfect break, just didn't realize it would be that short until I did it. Never fear, the last chapter is right behind this one._

_Thanks to USDA-Certified Organic for the help with Deke's line. She knows which one, if you want to know which one, ask me. He can be so annoying sometimes. The sad part is...my sense of humor is very much like his. I've got a couple of smart aleck replies to him, but well Lorne was too tired to let me use them._

_Oh SNAFU in the last chapter for those of you who didn't know is a military term...it stands for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up._

_Standard disclaimer still applies, I'm tired of repeating myself._

* * *

He looked down at her. The look in her eyes said she believed he could do this; that he could find what they needed and get them all home. Pulling his gaze away from her, he looked at his team.

Wall and Murray wore identical expressions of confidence. He was _their_ major and he had never failed to bring them home alive. They might get captured, beaten, tortured, or injured, but they all got home. He knew he would have to fail pretty spectacularly before that confidence wavered.

Deke had an expression of concern on his coal black face, although Lorne suspected that had more to do with Deke's suspicions that Lorne was lying about how he felt than anything else. Lorne didn't have the high threshold for pain that Sheppard did though. He certainly wasn't going to say felt worse than he did, but he also knew the fastest way to get grounded was to lie. Be up front about the level of pain, let the doctors do what they needed and/or wanted and you got back to your job a whole lot faster.

Finally he turned his focus to McFadden. By the time Lorne looked at him the gunnery sergeant had wiped all expression from his face. McFadden started back at him with the parade ground expression of a junior officer. Lorne knew, from months of serving with him, that it was the presence of Aiden that had turned McFadden into the perfect Marine. Normally none of his team had issues with speaking their minds. Briefly, Lorne wondered what had occurred while he was separated from them and made a mental note to make sure he saw Aiden's AAR before she submitted it to Doctor Weir. He would see the others as a matter of course so he wasn't worried about having to edit them. McFadden seemed prepared to trust him, but that was his way.

Closing his eyes, he inhaled, grounded himself with the feeling of Aiden's hand on his arm and _reached_ for anything that felt Ancient. He hadn't ever really tried to locate something before. Generally the scientists found Ancient tech or the stuff found Sheppard, but he knew what it ifelt/i like to him. There was the odd creepiness of having something new inside your head that eventually settled down into something familiar. Coming back to Atlantis after an away mission was like coming home now, even if he wasn't quite as ready as some to believe the city was in love with his CO. Atlantis was definitely a familiar humming in his head though. And one he was surprised to find he had missed when he was locked in the little room.

This tech was...off was the only way he could think of it once he connected with it...and stubborn. He really had to wrestle with it to get it out of sleep mode (and that would be a fun description in his AAR), but finally he felt it begin to rise from its resting place. He opened his eyes, although it gave him a weird sort of double vision, since he could see both the team and the console pausing it's way through the ground. "It's coming up," he announced. "It should break the surface any minute." Five heads whipped around, trying to spy out the console. He pointed off to his left. "It's going to be over there." Almost anti-climatically it broke the surface, rising until it was fully visible.

There was a pause as all of them stared at it. "Hey, I thought we were supposed to get a sword?" Deke said finally when no one else spoke.

Lorne glared at him and used his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face. "Deke, just.." Lorne sighed and decided it wasn't worth the effort. No matter what he said, Deke wasn't going to change. He turned to Aiden. "Now what?"

She tilted her camera so he could see the display panel. "You need to activate the console and input these commands." She pushed the button, scrolling through the pictures.

He put his hand over hers to stop her. "Yeah, those mean nothing to me, Aiden."

"It's okay," she assured him. "We'll do it together. First you need to go over there and activate it and make sure its not shielded against anyone else before I go near it."

"Shielded? It's not going to zap me or anything, is it?" Lorne asked.

She shook her head. "No. I told you. It's keyed to your DNA."

Lorne looked at her askance. "Yeah, and you know that how?"

"I read it on the stones," Aiden replied.

"And in this strange f'ed up world that I now live in, that makes perfect sense," Lorne muttered as he tested his legs to be sure they wouldn't collapse under him. When he was sure he wouldn't fall over, he made his way over to the console. He placed his hands on the edges of it and thought iturn on/i, the least stupid thing he could come up with. There was a 'pop' of displaced air and a shield shimmered into being around him; encompassing both him and the console.

"Oops," he heard Aiden say behind him.

He craned his neck so he could see her, carefully keeping both hands on the console. He wasn't sure if the console would deactivate or the shield would see him as an enemy if he let go, so he preferred to keep physical contact with it. "Oops?! What the hell do you mean oops?! Oops is _never_ a good thing!"


	16. Chapter 16

_Author's Note: And now we have come to the end...well at least the end of this adventure. I promise I have more adventures for Aiden and the boys in the works although I am not sure when I will get around to working on them. Enjoy the end though and drop me a line to let me know what you thought!_

_Standard disclaimer still applies, I'm tired of repeating myself._

* * *

"I didn't think it would have enough power to activate the secondary shield," she explained hurriedly.

He forced himself not to hyperventilate since he didn't know if the shield was airtight. "Are you saying we're completely screwed?" he asked incredulously.

"No," she was quick to reassure him. "Not completely screwed."

"Only partially screwed," Deke quipped.

"Not helping, Deke," Lorne pointed out through gritted teeth. He took a deep breath and calmly asked Aiden, "What do I do now, Doc?"

Aiden was studying her camera again, but at his question she looked up at him. "How did you turn it on?"

"I didn't turn the shield on. At least not on purpose. I thought 'turn on' at the console and this was the result," Lorne explained, waving one hand at the shield.

Aiden nodded. "Is the console active?"

Lorne glanced down, then back up at her. "Yes."

"Okay. I want you to try to turn the shield off. Just the shield, not the actual console. So think 'shield off' or 'deactivate shield' or something like that should do it," she instructed.

Lorne rolled his eyes as he turned his attention back to the console. He was going to have to remember to have a discussion with her on Ancient tech and how the soldiers didn't really understand how any of it worked. He looked the top of the console over, studying the displays for a few minutes, before clearing his mind and thinking hard at the console ishield off/i. He looked up in time to see the shield shimmer again and then disappear.

Quickly Aiden crossed the grass separating them and joined him next to the console. When the shield popped into being again, she was inside it with him. He looked down at her. "Was that part of the plan?" he asked.

She shook her head and he caught her braid before it could smack him. They were close together inside the shield, although not pressed up against each other. Neither of them had much room to move, but enough that they weren't actually on top of each other. "Not exactly," she admitted.

"You two okay, boss?" Deke called. The normal sarcastic lilt was gone from the Brit's voice and he sounded genuinely concerned.

Lorne glanced down at Aiden to check on her and then replied, "Yeah, we're fine. Give us a minute to try to get these shields down." He lowered his voice and spoke just to Aiden, "All right. What do I need to do?"

She fumbled her camera out of her vest pocket and turned it on. "You need to shut off both shields. I think the easiest way to do that is to shut the power off to the shields."

Lorne nodded. "Okay. How?"

Aiden tipped the camera so that he could see it, too. "Press this symbol, then this one, this one, and finally this one." As she spoke, she scrolled to each picture of the symbols she wanted him to press in the right order.

Lorne nodded. "Show them to me one at a time?" he requested as he reached for the first symbol she had shown him. Aiden flipped back to the second symbol and paused on it, waiting to change to the next one until he had pressed it. When he pressed the last of the symbols she had indicated, he looked up in time to see both shields disappear. The Marines and Deke gave a ragged cheer. Lorne spun around and ordered, "Dial Atlantis!"

Wall was closest to the DHD so he leaped forward and quickly dialed the city. McFadden stood by and immediately sent the IDC. All of them heard the confirmation over their radios and McFadden gave the order to go through the 'gate. Lorne stumbled as he started towards the 'gate and Deke grabbed him, hauling him through as Aiden scooped up his pack.

It wasn't their most dignified arrival into the 'gate room, but they all arrived in one piece. Deke released Lorne as the 'gate closed down. The 'gate room Marines stepped forward to take their P-90s and other weapons so it was only Aiden who noticed Lorne crumple to the floor. "Carson!" she yelled as she dropped to her knees beside the major. She shrugged her pack off so she could move easier and felt for a pulse.

Deke spun around and immediately reacted. He dropped down beside them and reached for Lorne. "Does he have a pulse?" he asked Aiden.

"Yes. It's faint, but it's there," Aiden replied. "What do you want me to do?"

"Help me get him into the recovery position," Deke instructed. The two of them worked together to roll the major onto his side. When he was situated, Deke looked up and spied the doctor moving towards them with his team behind him. "Here comes Beckett."

Aiden found herself pushed aside and allowed them to move her out of their way as the team surrounded Lorne. Beckett seemed to be everywhere at once, inserting a new IV into the major's arm, snapping out instructions in his brogue, and then leading the count that got Lorne onto a gurney and headed out of the 'gate room. Deke and the Marines hurried after them.

Aiden started to follow, but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She turned and looked up into the compassionate eyes of Elizabeth Weir. "What happened, Doctor Bancroft?" the expedition leader asked.

"I'm not sure." Aiden looked in the direction that Lorne had disappeared in. "He was fine just before we came through the wormhole. He just dropped when we got back here."

Doctor Weir nodded. "Were you able to find anything out before everything went wrong?"

Aiden nodded, her eyes lighting up at what she had found. "The stones were an instruction book. We got photographs of all of it. There were instructions on how to build drones, information on phase technology, and even a recipe book."

Doctor Weir held up her hand to stop the flow of information. "That sounds fantastic. Make sure to include it all in your report and copy it to the right departments."

Aiden nodded. "I will." She glanced again in the direction the others had disappeared in. "May I be excused now?"

"Yes. Report to the infirmary to be checked out and then you can get something to eat," Doctor Weir ordered gently.

Aiden nodded in response and scooped up her pack, before hurrying from the 'gate room. When she reached the infirmary, she discovered the three Marines sitting on beds in the main room. Wall still had a blood pressure cuff on and was playing with it, but the other two were obviously just waiting for word on the major. Deke was no where in sight.

Doctor Meyers, the on-call, looked up from the tablet she was writing on as Aiden walked in. "Doctor Bancroft, you need your post mission check," she informed the linguist.

"It can wait a moment, Doctor Meyers," Beckett said as he came out into the main room. "Aiden, the major's asking to speak with you."

"He's awake?" McFadden questioned.

"Aye, he is. And you'll all get your chance to see him. But he's asking to speak to Aiden and she'll see him first, then each of you for a few minutes." Beckett held up a hand when they started to protest. "If ye argue, ye won't see him at all." In normal circumstances, Beckett was a pushover, but when it came to his patients, not even an angry Marine would budge him from what he thought was best. "Go in, lass, but don't stay too long."

Aiden nodded in response and stashed her pack on an empty bed. She dropped her jacket on top of it and then followed Beckett's directions to Lorne's room. Deke was seated on a stool next to Lorne's bed, speaking quietly to the major. When Lorne noticed Aiden, he waved Deke quiet and said something in a low tone.

The dark skinned man got to his feet and offered Aiden his seat. "I'll see ya later, Lorne," he told the major. "Make sure to get some sleep."

"I will, Deke. Thanks," Lorne replied. He waited until Deke had left and Aiden had taken the seat he had vacated to speak. "Thank you," he told her.

"For what?" Aiden asked.

"For keeping your head. For acting quickly. For not letting the boys get to you," Lorne replied.

Aiden shrugged. "They were worried. I suspect they still are. None of us knew what had happened to you and that code on the stone didn't make it any easier."

"But Deke tells me you didn't argue with orders, that you followed what you were told and didn't protest having to leave the site. That's rare in a scientist."

"The people are more important than the information. Besides I've got pictures of everything, I should be able to translate it from those. It wouldn't be the first time."

"The mission wasn't a total loss then?" Lorne asked.

"No. Thanks to Deke and McFadden's help, we covered the circle. In addition to the drone directions; there was information on phase technology, puddle jumper semantics, ZPM information, and even a chicken soup recipe."

Lorne chuckled over her last comment, remembering what he had said to her when she first realized what was on the stones. "You're kidding?"

Aiden grinned as she shook her head. "Nope. One of the stones really was a recipe book." Her grin faded as she studied him. "Are you going to be all right?"

Lorne indicated the IV. "Beckett's got me re-hydrating and on the good drugs for the headache. He's making me stay overnight, just to keep an eye on me, but I should get out of here tomorrow. I'll probably be on light duty for a couple of days though."

"So fine?" she repeated.

"Good as new in a few days," he confirmed.

Aiden got to her feet. "I'll let the others come in then. They were a bit anxious to see for themselves that you were okay." She started to leave, than turned back, pulling his letters from her pocket. "Here. I don't know what you want to do with these, but you should keep them."

Lorne accepted them, shoving them under his pillow for now. "Thanks, Aiden. For everything." He cleared his throat. "I'd like to request that if we need a linguist again or you need an escort, my team be the one selected."

Aiden smiled shyly. "I'd like that, Evan, thank you. I'd better get going so your Marines can visit and you can get some rest."

He nodded. "Oh. Make sure you send me your AAR when you finish it. I'll forward it to Doctor Weir with the others."

"All right. I will." She paused for one last look, reassuring herself that he was alive and breathing; even if a bit worn out, then hurried back into the main room of the infirmary.

Lorne relaxed back on his pillows, momentarily startling himself when they crinkled before remembering the letters Aiden had shoved into his hand, and took a deep, slow breath. _Maybe_, he thought, _all of the scientists aren't quite as bad as McKay._ Then he braced himself for the onslaught of concern as the tromp of combat boots announced his Marines. It would have to be a thought for another day.


End file.
